RunRunLive - Celebrating the transformative power of endurance sports

A life Well Lived

A life well lived.

I’m standing in the front yard in my pajamas. It’s 18 degrees and everything is frozen hard with that late January freeze that penetrates deep into the earth. I’m holding Buddy’s emaciated body up to see if maybe he wants to pee. He’s warm as he leans against me.

He hangs his head and collapses on weak legs. I pick him up. So light now. Just a warm bag of bones. Nothing left of that strong dog that would sprint laps in this yard or launch himself 10 feet in the air to grab a frisbee in this yard or steal the soccer ball off my foot in our yard. His yard.

I have a photograph that I gifted to my wife one year, many years ago. It’s an aerial photograph of the yard some outfit was peddling in our neighborhood. The photo is late summer. There in the green of the grass sits Buddy, ever watchful, surveying the land from his perch on the hill. Always at the ready.

I stayed home with him yesterday. I slept in the chair next to his bed the night before. It was a long night. I was woken every hour or so by the grinding of his teeth and the spasming of his body from long, violent seizures. I put my hands on him and tell him it’s ok as he rides them out.

Oddly it was a comfort to me. To be able to spend this time close with him. I stayed home from work and built a fire in the fireplace. I sat on the couch and read while he stumbled around or slept.

It brought back memories of a parallel time when my oldest daughter Katie was born. I was in transition between jobs and took a couple weeks off to stay home with the newborn. I quickly discovered that all I could do was hold that warm infant on my chest and read. And we spent that time together. And I was grateful for it.

After this long night I thought this was the day, but he perked up. He was stumbling around the house. He was eating some treats. I figured I’d give him another night. He earned it. But today is that day.

He was doing fine a month ago on his 16th birthday, but something happened. Some sort of system failure. He lost 15 pounds in less than a month. The seizures. This morning he could not stand. It happens quickly. He’s exhausted.

It’s a difficult puzzle to unravel with a pet. How much of this is me trying to avoid my own pain and how much of it for them? How do you make that decision or more importantly, when do you make that decision? We can’t fathom their thoughts and emotions. As close as they are to us, they are still an alien mind. Most of the narrative our own egomaniacal anthropomorphizing.

It’s a weighty thing to have to decide the time of death for a friend.

These last couple days he hasn’t been eating his food, but he has been more than willing to eat our food. As sick and weak as he is, even when we have to hold him up, he’ll inhale that hamburger and chicken and chees with a pepperoni chaser. Good for him. Getting the last laugh.

Most people have many pets in their lives, but there is always that one. The one that grew up with your kids. That one that was your best friend. Buddy was that pet for us.

He was not without neuroses. He was irrationally afraid of thunder and fireworks. He was hard-wired to chase anything that moved, no matter what your opinion on the appropriateness of that chasing was.

But he was the best dog I have ever known. He was my running partner. He shared thousands of miles of road a trail at my side, stride for stride. He was incredibly smart, incredibly athletic and the kindest, gentlest guileless soul to his pack.

How many spiritual moments did we share in the trails? Hundreds. Thousands. Uncountable. Truly shared, because he an I had this resonance in the woods, this shared joy of the joyous bounty of nature beneath our feet and around us. We celebrated together. We were a pack of two, brothers, and single-minded on the hunt.

As men and dogs have been for eons. Filled and vibrating with the perfectness of the forest. Permeated with that primeval joy.

I’ll miss that. But, I’ll also celebrate it. Because how lucky am I to have intersected with this soul in this time and place? How much fuller am I? He gave me more than I can ever give. He was an example of kindness and joy. He was my friend and his passing will leave a big hole in all our lives.

Nice to be back in the saddle from the holidays. I feel like I’ve had a good couple months. I took an extra week on my cadence for this one because It was the holidays and, frankly, I had a lot going on. Plus I was sick. I got whatever cold is going around. Not the flu. Not pneumonia. Just a cough that hung around for the better part of 2 weeks.

I managed to hold the line on my diet through the holidays. I did not lose a bunch of weight, but I did eat relatively cleanly and avoided most of the sweets and adult beverages of the season. This was my plan, so well done me. This puts me in a healthy spot to hit my Boston training hard and lose 10-15 pounds. Because I think that’s what I’m going to need to do to have any shot of requalifying.

People think ‘Hey, Boston is in the spring! You’ve got plenty of time!” But that’s not really true. When you turn the corner to a new year on January 1st you are only 3 and ½ months away, which in broad strokes means 14 weeks. A typical hard training cycle for me is 12 weeks with a 2 week taper, so it’s game on.

I’m not starting from scratch and I’m healthy and I’m mentally enthusiastic. The dark times will come, but as of now I’m in a good spot.

Today we chat with Matt who is a team mate of mine. He’s got a great story. And it’s a timely story as we ease into the ‘resolution season’. Listen to what it took for Matt to find the courage to switch the momentum and begin his transformation.

In section 1 I’ll give you a wrap up on the Groton Marathon, which, against the odds we managed to pull off successfully last Sunday. Thinking about it, if I include that in my week, I’m over 50 miles for week one of my training! Feel pretty good for that.

In section 2 I’ll perambulate about goals and stuff, because, hey, it’s that time of year.

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When I was out running the Groton Marathon with my buddies I told them I had two topics that I wanted to discuss. The first was the ending of the movie Road House and the second was the Boston Marathon of Sex. Now, this being a family friendly show I’ll reserve the latter explanation for my members feed. I’m writing that as we speak and I crack myself up.

But, I was watching, or more to the point being forced to watch the movie Road House with Patrick Swazey, may he rest in piece, and like so many of the movies from that era, the ending didn’t make any sense.

So he rips the one bad guy’s throat out. Then he goes after the big bad guy. Kills 4 of his henchmen and then has the final fight with the big bad guy. In the end he decides not to rip that guy’s throat out but the friendly villagers kill the bad guy with shotguns.

Shortly after the police show up. Now we have been told that the police are in the back pocket of the bad guy. The police ask, ‘What happened?’ and everyone says “We didn’t see anything…” And that’s it. Cut to the final seen of Swazey skinny dipping with the love interest.

So, let me get this straight… There’s 6 dead bodies, one of which has Patrick Swazey’s knife sticking out of his chest, and the police just shrug their shoulders and say, ‘Well, I guess since no one saw anything…it’s all good… nothin to see here…”?

I’ve seen enough episodes of Law and Order to know they’re not getting off that easy! It’s ok, I ripped his throat out in self-defense…

Plus, they shot this guy with old shotguns. He probably wouldn’t be dead yet when the police come in. If it was bird shot he’d just be uncomfortable. Maybe he had a heart attack from the shock.

But think about all the movies you’ve seen where the end is a big pile of dead guys and it’s ok.

That will give you something to talk about on your next long run.

On with the show.

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

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The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Outro

Well, my friends kicked off your new year with a thorough listening to of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-401. Check that off your list.

Next up for me is a whole lot of training. I’m going deep. I can’t control the weather but I can control whether or not I show up and whether or not I consistently do the work. I’ve got a good jump start on this cycle. I’ve been working on my core a stretching daily.

I skipped the Hangover Classic this year. I was still fighting a cold and didn’t think jumping in the Atlantic Ocean was such a good idea.

I did finally start working on the startup sales book. I pushed the introduction out to LinkedIn. If anyone is interested in being a proof reader or a friendly critical eye I welcome the help. One of the things I’m trying to do better is to ask for help. I tend to want to do everything myself and that has a built in ceiling to it.

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I see the people in my community starting to complain about all the people showing up at the gym this week. My experience is that they tend to peter out after 10 days or so.

I’ve got a couple suggestions for this first of the year gym bottleneck.

First, if it really bugs you go early or late. I don’t care what time of year it is, you’ll have plenty of elbow room at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning.

Second, as we heard from Matt today, some of those out of breath people ARE going to stick it out. Let’s try to lean in and encourage them. Be that person that is the tipping point in that emerging healthy person’s life.

Take this as an opportunity to spread the good news and set a good example. This is a good way for you to practice abundance in the new year.

And, if you see Patrick Swazey, run because he’s been dead for a decade so the zombie apocalypse will be under way.

Yeah, that’s right, 400th numbered episode. That’s something. I still get the occasional letter form someone who has found inspiration or comfort in what you and I, my friends, do here on the RunRunLive Podcast. And by George, if we’re still helping people or adding value, we’ll keep going!

A couple notes about last week’s show. I said Buddy was 14, which was technically correct, but he turned 15 this week. The old dog. He doesn’t like getting up in the morning now, especially when he has to troop outside in the freezing cold.

The other thing I forgot to add was that I got so flustered by the karmic peeing - pooping incident at the pet store that I forgot to use the coupon that I went home to get originally that started the whole thing. Ce’st la vie.

I’m making some progress with my nutrition. I’m going on over 30 days of pretty clean eating and starting to see some results. My strategy was to start early and not wait until after the holiday. This way even if I could only battle to a tie, I won’t be starting my spring training cycle in a hole. If I look at data from previous years, I typically lose it big time in December and it costs me 5-10 pounds.

If I have any chance of re-qualifying this year with the new standards, I’m going to have to be 10 pounds lighter going into the race.

My legs and pacing continue to give me trouble. Coach says it’s a hangover from the 100 miler. I just can’t seem to find my easy zone 2 pace on the roads. I’m working it. Trying to be patient.

On today’s show we have our friend David Foss who took an adventure to the Dead Sea to run a trail marathon. In section one I’ll probably give you a brief recap of my Mill Cities race. In section 2 I’ll talk about a book I’ve been reading.

I read a lot of books. Reading is my go-to vehicle for absorbing content. I have to be careful because I can be influenced by books as well. I’ll read the latest book on XYZ and find myself all of a sudden trying to put XYZ into full blown practice. My filter is not the best sometimes.

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This time of year is hard for a lot of people. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the holidays force you to deal with family stuff. Maybe it’s the cold and dark. Maybe it’s something seasonal with our species.

I was reading an emotional outpouring from a woman on the social media site where she was really struggling. She had abusive relationships, she was injured and she couldn’t shake the feelings of desperation and depression. The walls closing in. I suppose that’s one positive thing about social media is that people can use it to reach out to the community for help.

Sure enough there were a long trail of positive responses. People trying to help. It was a positive response to a cry for help. 111 responses as of last viewing.

I happened to notice a post that our friend who is in a related profession shared. So I copied it and reposted it.

“Did you know that if you text "Home" to 741741 when you are feeling depressed, sad, or going through any kind of emotional crisis, a crisis worker will text you back immediately and continue to text with you? Many people, especially younger ones, prefer text to talking on the phone. It's a free service to anyone-- teens, adults, etc.-- who lives in the US. Depression is real, you are not alone.”

741741 I have not tried it, but I trust Greg – it’s in the show notes if you need it.

I also responded that “We are all basket cases. Some of us just hide it better. And to Keep running.”

Because on social media people only share their perfect worlds with their perfect relationships and perfect children and perfect race times! Life’s not like FaceBook. Life is rusty and lumpy.

Don’t get caught comparing yourself to someone else’s best day ever.

On with the show.

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

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The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

David Foss

During the business day, David is a professional geologist and Massachusetts Licensed Site Professional, focusing on Brownfields redevelopment and the productive reuse of regulated hazardous waste sites.

After hours, David is an endurance athlete making time to test his limits and expand his horizons. In 2012 he joined some friends for a New Years’ 5K and came to the realization that something was missing from his life. He was a busy environmental professional, husband, and father of two, but what was missing was the time to clear his head, think, and get back to nature. Endurance sports (road cycling, kayaking, and running) helped round out David’s world view. Since that first 5K race, he has found distance running to be a path to happiness and mindfulness. He has run 4 road marathons (one DNF), 2 trail marathons, 4 trail 50K’s, a 50-Mile race, and a 12-hour race.

After running 57-miles in 12 hours in the rain and dark, David shared the following blog post: Suffering is Optional

In 2015 David Followed the “Marathon BQ” training plan and grabbed that golden ring, running a 3:19 to qualify for Boston. Running the Boston Marathon was an amazing, magical experience. In contrast, this interview is a discussion of the Eilat Desert Marathon in the Negev Desert in southern Israel. The Desert Marathon was an amazing experience - - and as different from Boston as can be imagined.

David is a regular contributor to “The Extra Mile Podcast” and shares his thoughts on running and life in the Spreaker podcast: “Running Virtually” by Just-Plain-Dave.

Outro

Well, my friends you have spurred your camel through the eye pf the needle that is the the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-400. I’m sure it was a biblical, real old testament, experience.

Next up for me is the Groton Marathon. It’s a made up race in the town I grew up in. I’ve got a handful of people coming out to run with me. Hopefully the weather won’t be so dreadful this year. There’s construction at the place we start and finish so I’m going to have to figure out how to put in another couple hundred feet somewhere! Or just cut the course short. I mean who really cares, right?

If you want to swing by Groton Massachusetts, we have all sorts of distances, not just the marathon. I usually get 15 -20 knuckleheads from my running club to show.

I think David Foss is going to come up.

The dates work out well this year in that the marathon will be on the 30th so I get a day to recover for the Hangover Classic on the 1st.

Then I jump into some serious training for Boston. January and February are the big months. I’m going to talk to coach and see if we can’t load it up and get some good miles in. I’d like to be over-confident going in. Because, as we all know by now, you never know what the weather is going to be.

If you want to follow my training I use the Daily FitBook platform. My Garmin data also updates Garmin Connect, Strava and Myfitness Pal – as far as I know.

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I love adventures. I’ve been traveling most of my career and I always enjoy the spaciousness and freedom of business travel. I haven’t been getting out as much as I like to in my last couple roles. Which gives me less fodder for storytelling.

Thanks to David for sharing his travel adventure with us. I felt like I was there. I could feel the dry heat and smell the dust. The dust of centuries. The dust of civilizations. The dust of history.

The first crusade went through where he was. It was the only recorded time the Europeans used knights in full armor on heavy horse for a frontal charge. It worked well the first time. You can imagine how surprising it would have been to have these characters show up in your back yard. A couple hundred of these guys in heavy armor charging down on you.

As far as historians know it was only used that once in the beginning of the first crusade. Turns out riding a giant horse around the desert in a full metal jacket wasn’t the most effective or flexible means of desert warfare.

I understand. I get uncomfortable in phoenix riding around in a full suit of clothing.

Last week I was in the glorious Holiday Inn at the Cincinnati airport. I was out at dinner with the client and say myself next to their marketing person who I will be working with. Come to find out she’s running her first 50K that weekend! You can bet she regretted broaching the topic of endurance running with me!

You see, our tribe is everywhere, wandering over in deserts of Negev and over deserts in Hebron KY.

This is Chris your host and today we are going get a bit emotional. We are going to the dogs. Our themes are Buddy the Wonder Dog and courage.

One of our longtime friends Janet inquired how Buddy the old wonder dog is doing so today we are going to tell some Buddy stories.

In the interview I invited Gary back on to talk about his new book on running. I thought the timing was good with the holidays to give you another gift option! What can you buy for runners that they won’t hate? A book. Lots of books on running.

Gary has a dream job of writing about running for a living. I would have to become independently wealthy to do that. As it turns out words are cheap, in my experience.

I’m doing fine. I haven’t made much weight loss progress but I’m eating healthier. The weight will come off as I start building up miles in my spring campaign.

I’m working with Rachel to lose some weight and get my nutrition right. It’s hard through the holidays but I’m giving myself a long runway into the spring so even with setbacks I can ease my way into a good race weight for Boston.

And I’m working with Coach to build some strength. My core is not as strong as I’d like. My legs fatigue way faster than I think they should. My aerobic fitness is good, but my legs can’t get near that aerobic barrier and hold it like they used to.

I went to the PT to get his opinion and there’s nothing wrong with me per se I’m just getting old. I’m healthy and not injured.

With the shorter days I’ve been pushing my runs out into the evening. I find this is a dead time for me anyhow. I’m too mentally tired to do anything creative. I find it nice and head-clearing to get out on the road in the cold and dark with my lights. It’s peaceful.

Sometimes the stars are out, or the moon and it’s quite pretty.

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Like I said, we are going to spend some time talking about my old running partner Buddy the Wonder Dog today. He’s doing OK. He’s here with me now, sleeping.

The old saying is that you can’t teach and old dog new tricks. I beg to differ. You can teach an old dog bad habits rather easily.

Buddy has never been given human food. We never fed him from the table or scraps. I never gave him anything I was eating and as a result he never learned how to beg. You could eat, he wouldn’t bother you.

As he’s gotten older I started to toss him a peanut now and then. We let him have the morsels that fell on the floor and what have you. I figured, hey, how long has he got left? Let him live a little. What’s the harm?

Of course, now it doesn’t’ matter what I’m eating. A soon as I sit on the couch his nose is 3 inches from my food staring intently. And any time we’re in the kitchen he’s underfoot on scrap patrol.

So, yes, you can teach an old dog bad habits.

The same is probably true for humans.

On with the show.

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Section one – Buddy in old age- http://runrunlive.com/buddy-in-old-age

Voices of reason – the conversation

Gary Dudney

GARY DUDNEY has been publishing articles on running, trail running, and ultrarunning for the past 20 years. His work has appeared in all the major running magazines, such as Runner’s World, Running Times, Trailrunner, and Marathon & Beyond. For Ultrarunning magazine, considered the “voice of the sport” of ultra long distance running, he’s served as a regular columnist since 2008, and he has additionally supplied the magazine with dozens of uniquely quirky race reports. Ideas for The Tao of Running were shaped by the 60 one hundred mile races he’s participated in and the almost two hundred other long distance races he’s completed. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Kansas in English Literature and his fiction credentials include stories in Boy’s Life magazine and in numerous literary magazines and one published novel, Cries-at-Moon of the Kitchi-Kit. His second book on the mental side of running, The Mindful Runner: Finding Your Inner Focus, was just released on November 1 of 2018.

Outro

Alright, I appreciate you sticking with me through the emotional journey of Episode 4-3989of the RunRunLive Podcast I’m sure it took great courage on your part.

I ran the Thanksgiving 5K with my daughter and a bunch of people from my running club. I had a good time. It’s always great to see friends and its always great to spend time with my kids.

I also decided to stop stressing out about pace and time. This is just about the only 5K I run each year so it bothers me if I don’t’ race well. When we woke up before the race it was 9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is very cold for this early in the winter. There was a nice little breeze too. So itf you’re one of those softies who believe in windchill it would have felt about zero.

There was no warming up. I didn’t even bother. I just went out at what felt like a good hard pace and tried to hold it. I think I ended up with7:20’s, but who cares, right?

I’ve been trying to follow a good morning routine with stretching, meditation, reading and writing and it helps. I haven’t made much progress on my new book about startup sales, ironically because the startup I’m in is keeping me uber stressed out and busy.

Thanks for playing along. Next episode will be our 400th official episode. I’ll have to think hard about what I want to do next.

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I decided to write that quick update on Buddy because I got an email from long time friend Janet inquiring for his health and wellbeing.

Let me tell you my Buddy story of the week.

Monday night I was getting ready to leave work. It was after 6:30. I had a need to pick up a bag of dog food, because we were almost at the bottom of the barrel. This is ok, because the dog food store is on my way home.

Then I realized I have forgotten to bring the 10% off coupon for said dog food that I received in the mail and was quite excited about. I believe the coupon algorithm in the great coupon generating AI computer typically only sends coupons when you don’t need something. So, the universe has made an error in my favor and I aim to take advantage of it.

I decide to go home first. Which is not on my way. But I can pick up the dog and take him to the pet store with me as an outing. It’s one of the few places they allow dogs.

As I leave work it is sluicing rain. Again. Rainiest month in history. (Like a normal week in Seattle or London.)

I get home and go to let Buddy out. He’s been in the house all day. He looks outside at the weather and digs in his heels. “Like, it’s only been 8 hours, I can hold it. I’m not going from warm bed to cold rain!” I push him out onto the wet front steps.

I do some quick things around the house. I grab the coupon off the fridge and retrieve him for the trip to the store.

It’s still pouring rain. I’m not dressed for it having just come from work.

He digs in his heels as I try to load him into the truck. Armful of wet dog into the seat.

We drive off to the pet store to get the food. It’s late. No one is in the parking lot and the store is empty. I unload the dog and lead him on the leash to the store. He wants to wander around the parking lot and sniff everything. It’s pouring rain, still.

We enter the empty store and I lead him back to the section where his food bags are stacked. Leaving a trail of wet footprints. I have to keep pulling him away from all the interesting things to sniff on the way.

I know to keep an eye on him because the pet store is full of pet smells. There have been hundreds of other dogs in there getting groomed and trained and just wandering around. I know if I don’t watch him, he may try to mark something. It’s not that he has that bad habit, it’s just that his reptilian brain gets overwhelmed by the scent of other dogs. For a dog nose that place must be the equivalent of technicolor.

I find the food and sure enough as I’m hoisting a 30-pound bag up onto my shoulder one handed with the leash in the other hand, he starts peeing on the floor. Dammit! I yank him away and go to check out.

Now I have a moral decision to make. A decision that requires courage. Pretend it didn’t happen or confess to the young lady at the register. And as I’m practicing doing things that scare me this month, I decide to come clean, so to speak.

She says they have “Sanitary Stations” just for this and asks if I want her to clean it up or would I like to do it myself – with the clear emphasis on ‘do it yourself’.

I grab a handful of paper towels from the sanitary station and the bottle of organic squirty stuff. I mop up my friend the dog’s unfortunate leavings. I have to make another trip to get more towels. He was serious about his duties.

When all is as clean as it’s going to get we wander back to the register to retrieve the big bag of food. I ask her if most people just ignore it and leave. She says that mostly happens with poop.

Que the ominous foreshadowing.

We exit the building. It is, impossibly, raining even harder and colder. Me in my dress pants and shirt with a big bag of food balanced on my shoulder like a suburban lumberjack and the leash in the other hand.

I decide to pause to let him sniff the pots outside the door. I feel bad that I had to practice urinatus-interuptus on him in the store. But he has other plans and begins to poop on the sidewalk in front of the store.

I say ‘no’ and try to pull him away but he manages to leave a trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak across the parking lot.

Eventually I wrangle him and the bag of food into the truck.

Now I’m stuck in another moral conundrum, but since I’ve already got momentum, I grab a plastic bag (that I keep in the truck for these types of outings) and stoop amid the puddles to undo the poo.

I was on Facebook Messenger this week and realized there were unread messages in there. Some several years old. I’m not sure if this was an artifact of some server upgrade or from when they pulled Messenger out into a separate app, but If you sent me a Facebook message and didn’t’ hear back, I apologize.

I usually respond to everything. I like interacting. Hope I didn’t cause anyone to give up.

Today we talk with Katrin who’s story I found in my Boston Marathon Training group. Some interesting stories in there. I wanted to talk to her because she was able to accomplish something I have never been able to. She was able to race herself into the hospital.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to give up way before I collapse on the course. Don’t worry, it has a happy ending.

In section one I’m going to explore the concept of mastery. In section two I’m going to talk about happiness and purpose.

I’ve been working on myself over the last couple weeks. Not just physically but overall. I’m working with Rachel on my nutrition, I’m doing some personal improvement work and I’ve got my morning routine going.

I go through cycles and I was ready for a reboot.

One of the things that popped up is I have another book in my mind that is begging to get out. How blessed am I that these things just stand up and shout every now and then?

I’ve just started but the topic is going to be Startup Sales. It’s going to be for the entrepreneur who has a started a company, with a great idea and great promise but has to learn how to sell that idea and promise.

This is my 3rd trip through the startup cycle and I think I could help a lot of people. Not just the tactical ‘how to’ but the emotional wrapper that comes with navigating the choppy seas of a startup.

Much like I combined the tactical practice of speedwork with the ability to mentally survive the dark places of an intense training campaign in MarathonBQ.

I’m still in formulation mode, but if you have any good ideas or want to introduce me to a publisher or want to ride along as an editor or muse, let me know.

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As you listen through today think about how you can focus on mastery and not just competence or getting by. Listen to how Katrin was able to navigate the extreme learning of her two marathons.

Think about what you love doing, what your purpose is and why you are here.

And I’m glad you’re here.

Brilliant!

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Section one – Mastery- http://runrunlive.com/mastery

Voices of reason – the conversation

Katrin Maesse

My third marathon, two words: Boston Qualification!!!💙💛 The official finishing time was 3:28:50h, so much better than I thought it would be! Not sure if this will be really enough for Boston but for now I take it - happy and proud! 🎉 As usual, I went out too fast, so I took it easier after the first 17 miles. However, it was amazing from the start to the finish. I met super cool people to chat with, could motivate two guys not to walk but to stay with me for some miles, celebrated with the cheering crowed and loved to see my cheerleaders Christophand Donna along the course 😍26.2 miles of smiling! Right before mile 24 and again before mile 26 I had bad cramps and needed to stop to stretch my calves..I finished on cramping legs but I finished! I cried many happy tears, started smiling again and gave high fives to every single Marine I met on the way to my medal! Happy and proud of todays achievement! Like Adrianne would say: I can do hard things! ❤️

Outro

Thank you my friends for joining me for Episode 4-398 of the RunRunLive Podcast – were you able to collapse, recover and keep going?

I’m still taking it relatively easy now. I’m working with my nutrition coach Rachel to get healthy over the next few months (and of course lighter) so I can put a good training cycle in for the spring.

I go through cycles of good nutrition and those typically last with some point adjustments for a couple years and then I need to get help again for a few months. I’m definitely in the conscious competence Phase where I know what I’m supposed to do but have trouble executing.

Next up for me is a Thanksgiving Day race that I run every year with my younger daughter. I’m not expecting much but I’ll go give it a whirl, see my friends, have some fun.

I’m a big consumer of podcasts. Partly it’s my personality type where I just hate to waste time, so if I’m in my car or on the run I listen to podcasts. I have smattering of business and pleasure and have gotten good at cycling on to new ones when I feel like it and ignoring old ones, otherwise the list of un-listened to podcasts will pile up and make you feel guilty. It’s ok. It’s ok. Listen to what you like and dump what you don’t. You’re under no obligation.

I don’t’ listen to those running podcasts where people just get on and talk while they run. It’s just not interesting to me. And I don’t feel like I get a lot out of the ‘how to’ running podcasts either.

Here are a few episodes or podcasts that have stood out in the last few months. I’ll try to link them in the notes.

First is a new podcast called Ultra running history by Davey Crockett. Davey does a great job of producing a show. It is well recorded with good audio and lots of sound effects and sound bites. The history of ultra events is super interesting. http://ultrarunninghistory.com/

Another show I have on my feed, like millions of other folks is Tim Ferris. I would never say that a person as successful as Tim impresses me as a narcissistic ass most of the time, I would never say that, and I dislike the self-indulgent super long format, so I pick and choose based on the guest. A recent episode #343 featured Seth Godin. Seth is a wonderfully centered and mindful person. That is a great listen. https://tim.blog/2018/11/01/seth-godin-this-is-marketing/https://tim.blog/2016/05/04/mike-rowe/

Since I’m a New England boy I have been listening to ‘Gladiator’ – by the Boston Globe which is a 6 part series on the rise and fall of Aaron Hernandez. It’s super dark, but if you remember the murder trial and suicide of Hernandez you’ll be fascinated. http://apps.bostonglobe.com/spotlight/gladiator/

Our friend Zen Runner is doing a new project called ‘Zen 2 Zion – Road to Ultra’ where he is training to run an ultra with his daughter. It’s charming. And Adam has always been a good podcaster. http://adamtinkoff.com/

A good, short listen is ‘The Way Heard it’ by Mike Row of Dirty Jobs fame. He’s a great story teller and these are good little bits of joyful story telling. (by the way, Tim Ferris’ interview of Mike Rowe was really good too) http://mikerowe.com/podcast/

Lastly, before I move you to the exit, one of the shows I have on my feed is On Being by Krista Tippet. I believe this is a public radio show as well. She talks to authors, poets, philosophers and others about super deep woo woo stuff. I don’t listen to all of them. I choose a couple here and there that interest me.

She hold a forum with Sally Kohn who was the Lesbian liberal foil on Fox News for many years and Erik Erickson who is a conservative pundit and radio personality from Georgia.

Instead of setting it up as your typical cable news cage match they explore all the things we have in common. And at the end of the day you realize that we have 85% in common and only these few things that separate.

That’s the great realization. No matter who you are. When you look across the way at your supposed adversaries, they are not bad people. They want what’s best of their family and their country, just like you do. If you had dinned with them you would like each other, as people, not positions.

The things that separate are small things that have been whipped into big things by people with agendas. We are better than that.

How are we doing today? Are you surprised to hear from me? Well, I figured since I’ve been missing my publishing deadlines I’d make it a point to get this one out on time!

I had some plane time and had a lot to get out of my head around the Baystate marathon I just ran – so let’s celebrate abundance together.

This one is going to be a bit of a gear change from last episodes’ rah-rah Boston qualification dialogue. Today I reached out to my friend Molly who we’ve known from the on-line running community for a long time. We ran the Mojo Loco in St. Louis together years ago.

The Mojo Loco movement was a thing started by Steve Runner of phedipidations fame where we would all get together in some city and run a relay race together. No point other than just a bunch of runners from the online community getting together to meet in the protein form and hang out. It was a great idea. Someone should start that project again.

I always follow Molly’s adventures online. It’s a unique age where we all live out in public through social media. Molly is always entertaining. Ironically, I probably would have described her as ‘comically neurotic’.

And, I watched as she ran up against something that changed her life. So, I wanted to talk to her about that and see what, if anything, we could profit from the conversation.

To wrap up last weeks show, Jonathan ended up positively obliterating the Atlantic City Marathon with a 3:11 finish. That’s the power of focus. He went from a 3:54 to a 3:11 in about 24 months. I just read today on social media that he’s gunning for a sub-3 finish next fall.

My training partner Brian toughed out a 3:33 at Baystate to get his 2020 qualifier. We had another long-time friend of the show finally get the sub-3:30 she’d been chasing for years at, I think Amsterdam. Great examples of sticking with it and doing the work to get the goal.

My race? Well, you’ll have to listen to the race report I’m wrapping around this episode.

…

When you have a situation like Molly’s it clears away all the bullshit in your life. It makes me ask the question why we can’t get this clarity until it is forced upon us by some crisis?

We all have the power to do what we want, to do what is right and to do what makes us happy. Why don’t we?

It’s because we are too busy trying to live the life that we think we are supposed to. No one gave us a manual on how to live a healthy life. The manual we got was to keep in line and do all the ‘right’ things and at some point the reward would come.

It’s probably time to update the manual. What I would add is…

Don’t wait until your name is called. Don’t pretend to be happy living the life you think you’re supposed to live. You only get this one life. You only get this one now. Respect yourself, accept yourself and do what YOU want to do.

I don’t mean to go Tony Robbins on you, but unless you can come to grips with who you are and what you want the world is just going to spin by.

So get busy with that, would ya?

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Outro

Thank you my friends for joining me for Episode 4-397 of the RunRunLive Podcast unless you gave up halfway through, then you’re not here anymore.

What am I going to do now? I’m going to rest a bit. Take some time off, gain some weight and get my head right, get my passion back. Running, when you do it right is a clear a crisp beacon of passion. When you do it wrong you get your ass kicked.

I’ve got some fun races in the fall. There’s the traditional Thanksgiving 5K in Ayer. Then the Mill Cities Relay with my club. And, of course, the last Sunday in December, the 30th, we will gather for the Groton Marathon, which is a made up race of any distance and any pace you want to run with me and my friends up in Groton Massachusetts – you can visit the website at grotonmarathon.com. Come up and play with us.

Last weekend when I was in the pace pack people kept asking me how many marathons I’d run. I didn’t know how to answer. Do I count the ultras? Do I count those training runs that were longer than 26.2? If that’s the case I think I ran 8 marathons over the summer!

I’m going to continue to count Groton. Even though it’s a made-up race. Come up and join me. We’ll jog a casual 4:00 hour marathon and tell tall tales.

I told coach we have a full gym at the place I work now. I told him he should teach me how to use the heavy bag because it always looks cool when people are kicking and punching it on TV!

Next summer I think I’ll do a mountain biking cycle, I miss it. Find an epic race that rewards endurance and doesn’t penalize lack of skill.

Before that I’ve got a qualified ticket to the 2019 Boston Marathon. I haven’t requalified there since 2010. Maybe that’s a worthy goal?

…

I have another trick for you when you are in uncomfortable situations where you feel like you have imposter syndrome. This one is the ‘super-hero avatar’ trick. It’s appropriate for Halloween. Maybe I should have used it last Sunday!

The trick is to think of someone real or imagined who is fantastic in these situations. They are the superhero of whatever this situation you are afraid of.

Picture them engaging the crowd, wowing the opposition, swaying everyone with their charisma and drive. They are epitome of the pro you wish you were.

Got that person in your head? Got them visualized?

Ok, now give them a name. A cool name. A superhero name. Like “Crusher” or “T-Rex”. Got it?

Ok now next time you go into a situation that scares you think about how Crusher or T-Rex would handle it. Visualize what they would do. Now put their avatar in front of you like a projection. Even better step into that projection like putting on a costume.

Live that situation through your super hero’s eyes and actions. What would Crusher do in this situation? What would T-rex do?

Try that. It might not help, but it’s fun.

What the heck do you have to lose? Life is short. Live it like you mean it.

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-396. This is your friend Chris. How are we doing? It’s marathon racing season. We just had Chicago, New York is in a couple weeks and every weekend hosts a plethora of regional races in these few contiguous weeks.

I myself am racing this Sunday at Baystate. Jonathan, who we interview here today is racing at Atlantic City. If you’ve been with the show long enough, you might remember I raced there a few years back as well. It’s an interesting loop course that starts and finishes on the boardwalk. If you’ve ever seen Boardwalk Empire on HBO that’s the boardwalk they’re talking about.

Today’s show is about focus. So far in this, I guess we might call it a series of themes, we looked at empowerment and then last week endurance. This week’s theme is focus. As we talk through Jonathan’s journey listen to the focus that he brings to his training and his goal. He’s like a berserker warrior in his single-minded focus on this achievement and he’s been able to have some success with this element of his approach.

So, obviously I’m going to tease apart the concept of focus in section two. In section one I’m going to outline what I have learned over the years about how to take large chunks off your finishing time. How to break plateaus, surprise yourself and get non-linear gains in performance. (sounds like a new book).

I’m as ready as I’ll ever be for the Baystate marathon on Sunday. I’m fit, I got some decent training in and I have not real injuries. I’m still heavier than I’d like to be optimally, but I’m healthy.

Looks like the weather is going to be decent but maybe a bit cold and a bit windy. If it holds where it is it will be just about freezing at the start and there will be 10-15 mile per hour winds. I’ve run this course n a windy day before and there are long stretches that are open to it.

With the BAA lowering the qualification standards, (or raising them, depending on your point of view), the race moved all the pace groups up 5 minutes. That makes it easy for me. I’ll just attach myself to the back of the 3:30 pace group and chill out. This is typically a pretty big pace group, at least for the first half, so I can stay out of the wind. Just try to idle until we hit that final stretch across the river and see how I feel – either hang on or drive it home.

…

I seems old-hat to say that we all get the same number of hours in the day. But, focus is how you find the leverage in what you have to achieve a goal.

Think of a magnifying glass. Maybe when you were a kid you held that magnifying glass in your hand and noticed that the convex lens focused the light. At a certain height and angle you found that focal point (or for our purposes ‘focus point’). This focus point collected all the power of 3-4 inches of sun and condensed it to a point, that dot of light.

Then you discovered that this dot of light had the intensity to start fires in the dry leaves or fry unsuspecting insect life. Through focus you were able to take the same patch of sunlight that might warm your face and create overwhelming energy at one point.

That’s the power of focus.

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Section one – Big Chunks! - http://runrunlive.com/big-chunks

Voices of reason – the conversation

Jonathan Lieberman

Just that I’ve reached low 180s lbs and will be attempting to BQ for 2020 on October 21 in Atlantic City! Thanks man! Here’s a pic from Philly RnR Half last week:

The (much) shorter answer to your question of “How do I do it” re: training is my mantra “This Is My Olympics” (which I of course forgot to mention🙄, if you want to include that in the show notes and/or title.

Section two – Focus - http://runrunlive.com/focus

Outro

Thank you my friends for joining me for Episode 4-396 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Hopefully you wetre able to find the focus to stay with me.

The Baystate marathon is on Sunday. I didn’t manage to get as light as I wanted, but I’m healthy and had a reasonable training cycle. I did more speed work than coach normally gives me to get some leg speed to go with that aerobic fitness.

That’s my challenge. I’m fit enough to go the distance, but my legs are the constraint.

It looks like the weather is going to be a bit chilly for the race, which is good for me. I’d rather have the cold than the hot. Like I said in the intro, my plan is to hang on to the back of the 3:30 pace group and see what I have in the high miles.

I bought a month’s worth of meal planning from Rachel and coach. The training site we use is called DailyFitBook. That’s how I get my workouts. For the last month I’ve gotten 3 recipes a day in my workouts which was cool.

The meals are a lot more paleo type than I’m used to. But I have successfully learned to make frittata, and turkey burgers and I make a nice coleslaw now. Real men make coleslaw, yeah? These protein-heavy meals fill you up more and the rest of my family doesn’t hate them.

…

One last though for you. Do you ever suffer from imposter syndrome? You know, you find yourself in a meeting or a situation and wonder “Holy cow, everyone is looking at me, counting on me, and who am I? I’m not good enough, smart enough, etc for this! I’m a fake! What can I do so they don’t find me out?!”

I mean, obviously not me, I’m speaking for a friend…

A consequence of this kind of thought process is your inner turmoil, your inner noise, your inner insane dialogue gets so loud it crowds out everything else and you are immobilized just when you need to be a better version of yourself.

Your inner insane dialog (which, by the way no one else is thinking except you), prevents you form rising to the very occasion that you are stressed about to begin with.

Here’s what you can try. Here are a couple tricks. Before the next interaction do some prep. Find a quiet place. Relax. Put yourself in a meditative state. Quiet yourself. Shush those voices.

Picture your head as a big circle, like a pie chart. Picture that pie chart as having two slices. The first slice is red-orange and it is all the insane, negative, self-talk. The other slice is your clear-thinking normal self.

When you go into these stressful interactions the red-orange side of the pie chart grows until it crowds out the nice, blue-green, smart, well spoken slice. And instead of paying attention and focusing on what you are delivering or what the other humans are saying, all your sanity gets crowded out and you don’t hear anything anyone else has to say. It leaves you with only a tiny slice of your effective thinking to use. This response basically disables you, and keeps you from being your best self in that situation.

Instead, visualize the circle filling with tat blue-green rational thought. Picture that red-orange dissolving. If you can get good at this ‘in the moment’ you can catch yourself and refocus.

No one else cares about the noise in your head. Practice clearing that out and being present.

Today’s show is about endurance. Hopefully it will be available for you folks who are stepping into the Chicago marathon this weekend. Not that you would need a podcast to listen to at Chicago. I mean, you’ve got 45,000 other runners to talk to. You probably won’t catch Galen Rupp or Mo Farah. You might be able to catch Joan Benoit Samuelsson, she’s going for the age group record as a 61 year old, but that’s doubtful as well. Amy Cragg is out there with the elites as well.

I hear the weather is going to be bad. High winds and maybe some rain. I remember joking after Boston this year that if they had that kind of weather in Chicago it would be the apocalypse. Hopefully it won’t be too bad and it will give everyone something epic to talk about.

Endurance is the theme today. I talk with Karen who is a prime example of not giving up. This is the second person this year who I have talked to with one of these incredible stories of rebirth.

In section one I’ll give you a primer on Achilles tendinitis (I made a video for this one as well because the stretches are hard to explain without a visual) and in section two I’ll wax poetically about endurance.

Since we last talked my training has run the gamut between horrible and wonderful. Right after our last show I had to walk away from a long tempo run because I was just shot. I was pretty down about it. I don’t like giving up on workouts. But I couldn’t hold the paces and my form was shot so I walked away 2 hours into a 3-hour workout.

But since then I have had a couple really good workouts. I’ve been doing a lot of speed work and my tempo paces have come down to encouraging levels. I have been consistently holding paces in the 7:30’s on my long tempo and that bodes well for the upcoming marathon.

Some of you may have heard that you would have needed to beat your qualifying time by over 4 minutes this year to get into Boston. As registration closed the BAA announced that for the 2020 race they are lowering all the standards by another 5 minutes. For me that means I now need to run a 3:35 to make the standard, which is a hair over 8-minute miles.

…

You may have gotten used to hearing my dog Buddy the border collie in the background of these recordings. I had him into the vet last week for a check up. He’s doing fine. He’ll be 15 in December. With the cooler fall weather he comes back to life and gets agitated.

He can’t really run anymore. His hips are pretty shot. He can still move well and isn’t in any discomfort. He’s in great shape for his age, but, like me, he doesn’t realize how old he is. Living an active life has probably given him an extra 2 years with us to enjoy.

When I was walking down the sidewalk with him on the leash towards the vet a guy was unloading an old standard collie. He had a ramp that he unfolded so the old collie could totter down out of his van. This poor old thing could barely move. When he got the collie into the vet’s office he said ‘Don’t let him lie down or he won’t be able to get up.’

I asked the guy ‘How old?’. Thinking this museum piece of a collie must be really old compared to Buddy. The answer was 12. Buddy was 2 years older than this poor old collie and trotting around like he owned the place, ready to go.

So – there ya go – lead an active life and you’ll have a much higher quality of life in the later innings.

On with the Show.

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Section one – Achilles- http://runrunlive.com/achilles-primer

Voices of reason – the conversation

Everyone has a story. I have been a runner most of my adult life. Have done marathons all through the years. Two and a half years ago while out for my run I got hit by a hit and run driver. I was found along the road side by a amazing man. I was unconscious, major head trauma, leg broken in three places, multiple cuts, bruises. After a very long 8 months I started walking to get strong. Soon I was doing a limp like shuffle jog. It was ugly but it was a start. My daughter always wanted to run a marathon with me. I was not going to let this person who hit me take this from us. Lots of stubborn runners strength kept me going. Never would have guessed it but two years after I ran a marathon with my daughter and almost qualified. Two months later in Philly I did it. What the power of love can do. Can not believe it is real. Scared, proud. My daughter will be my cheer leader. Her goal is to qualify this year in philly. Someone wake me.

Outro

You know what I’m going to say, right? Yup. That’s it you have endured another episode of the RunRunLive Podcast. That was number 4-395. Episode 4-395 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

I’m in my taper for Baystate. It’s on the 21st. I seem to have gotten enough speed back and am confident that I have an opportunity to beat that new 3:35 standard. We’ll see. All you can do is put yourself in position to race. You get to the starting line and the universe takes care of the rest, right?

I have a tip for you. When I first started running seriously I used to rely on a lot of sports drinks. I used to power my runs with Gatorade and Power Bars. But over the years I’ve come to find it easier, and heathier, to condition my body to run off its own fat stores with minimal intervention.

I still use fuel in races but only enough to keep the fire lit, so to speak. Regardless of the fueling product you are using what I have found is that the recommended dosage from the manufacturers is always too strong, at least for me. This goes all the way back to when I ran on Gatorade. Full strength Gatorade gave me stomach issues.

My tip for you is to practice cutting what ever you’re using by half. What ever it is. If it says a scoop per bottle, just put in a ½ scoop. This way it won’t impact your stomach. You get used to it and you can meter your intake just as well with a lighter dose.

…

Speaking of Buddy’s visit to the vet, I myself went to get a checkup. I try to get in every year for a physical because I’m in that age group that gets some of those top ten diseases like prostate cancer and colon cancer. It’s just good practice.

I hadn’t been in for a couple years because of different urgencies in my life so I figured I should.

Today’s show is about empowerment. There has been much ballyhoo around empowerment in the past few years, rightly so. To my mind it is not about someone in charge, or society or culture stepping forward and blessing you with empowerment. It is about you realizing that you have the strength, the gifts, the permission to be empowered.

Just like ‘inspired’ means to be filled with spirit, ‘empowered’ means to be given or gifted power. What we’re going to realize is that we have the ability to give ourselves that gift.

This is a big part of how a good coach, and a transition to an endurance lifestyle, can transform your mindset by giving you, or more appropriately, revealing to you your own infinite power.

Today we have a chat with Liz, who is a runner, a coach and a mom. Liz and I have spent some time running the roads of Groton together. We talk about empowerment of her runners.

In section one I’ll tell my Wapack Trail Race tail. And in section two I’ll talk about…I’ll give you three guesses… That’s right Empowerment!

I’m ramping up my training for the Baystate Marathon in October. Have been working on my speed and it’s awful but I’m getting the workouts done. At least the weather is turning a bit cooler now up here so I can avoid the soupy heat and humidity.

But the days are getting shorter in a hurry as well. I’m doing some workouts at night in the dark. I don’t mind, I’ve always been a night runner.

I did a trail run one night last week and it was a clear moonless night. Really pretty to be able to look up through the trees and see the stars splashed across the sky.

As we move into fall the Concord grapes are ripening. The sweet-sour smell hits you as you pass by. They are screaming florid grape smells at you as if to say, “We’re still here! Your Vikings and colonials have come and gone, but we’re still here!”

I have a key tip for you. Something I learned from the 100 mile training. When I run at night on the road I have always worn a headlamp. I also try to wear something reflective or a blinky light on one arm.

In Ultra-running you carry a flashlight as well. Remember what generation I’m from. When I think flashlight I think about those 8-inch long cylinders with multiple heavy D-cell batteries that at best gave off a wan yellow glow. Think horror movie flashlight.

When I started training overnights for the 100 I looked around for flashlights and discovered there is a whole new generation of cheap, bright, small, LED flashlights. Companies give them away as marketing knickknacks.

They are so small and light you can hold them between your fingers and not even notice them. This way you don’t have to turn your head to illuminate something, you just point the flashlight at it. When you’re running into oncoming traffic you can wave the light around in their frame of reference to make sure they see you.

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Things I like:

I’m a runner (especially love the trails), coach, writer, and former CPA who knows a few things about Quickbooks. I’m a mom to two amazing and sometimes pain in the butt daughters who have taught me more about myself then any book. I’ve lived in Ireland where I got engaged and married. I’m vegan and love all animals especially my two Golden Retrievers, Thor and Ginger and my three cats, Fluffy, Bailey and Paris.

I’m over 50 and I don’t let that number tell me what I can and can’t do. I’ve been to Paris more then any other city in the world besides Boston (where I live). I’m not afraid to try new things, go by myself to run the stairs at Harvard Stadium with November Project, go run a race alone in another state and listen to what my gut is telling me to do even if I’m not sure where my gut is taking me.

So why Running on Venti? I do love coffee but it is more than about the coffee. It’s about living your big, beautiful life and going after those BIG goals, one small and sometimes messy step at a time. Even when it’s scary. It’s jumping all the way in not just slowly getting used to the water.

Outro

Thank you my friends for joining me for Episode 4-394 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Do you feel empowered?

I’m training now for the Baystate marathon. Putting in some road miles. I feel pretty good.

One thing I had taken my eye off of was my nutrition. I have been eating too much junk and drinking too much beer. I started a new project with the goal of getting to the starting line of Baystate under 170 pounds. I figure why waste this fitness I have by half-assing my preparation?

I have a quick story about worms.

I didn’t get much out of my garden this year. The varmints ate all my tomatoes. I didn’t get any squash and only a couple cucumbers.

But my kale was great this year. For some reason the cabbage worms never showed up and I’ve been eating kale salads every day for a month.

This week the worms have discovered my kale, not the cabbage worms, which are all green, the color of the plant, that makes them hard to clean off. My wife the horticulturalist says these worms are Sod Worms. They are green and brown with yellow and black stripes.

They aren’t making a dent yet and they are easier to clean off because you can see them. As the weather cools off they will be less active. Hopefully I can still get my salads for a few more weeks, even if they have a bit of extra protein in them.

I also have a family of caterpillars chewing through my parsley. They are those big striped worms that turn into beautiful butterflies. The butterflies are like royal blue monarch butterflies. I’m letting them eat the parsley. Seems like the right thing to do. Karma and all.

…

I was listening to some poets talking about how movement is an act of meditation or prayer. You make yourself a vessel and allow power to come through you. Whether you that is the power of god or the power of the universe that we share. You are a doorway.

Think of the relationship between movement and empowerment spiritually. Moving through the stations of the cross. Climbing the tower of a Buddhist monastery. Each step is inserting a power (or a prayer) into the world.

Think about that the next time you’re out for a run. Imagine you are a conduit for power and are injecting it into the world each time your foot rings the ground.

Today’s show is about resilience. That’s the theme. It’s more than just stubbornness, or courage, or grit, (which is the popular term now). It is about all those things and more.

As endurance athletes and runners we have a front row seat to the practice of resilience across the arc of our lives.

Today we talk with Gary who I met at the Burning River 100. He was selling copies of his book “the Tao of Running”. I took his card, and we connected this past week to chat about how to practice this courage, and enjoy it, in our training and racing.

In section one I’ll talk about resilience in our running. You can tell by now that I ‘v been thinking about this a lot. Resilience is one of the keys to living a successful life, right? In section two I’ll talk about an example of how to use resilience at work.

I am running the Wapack Trail 18 miler this weekend. I’m looking forward to it. I think I can carry the fitness I built up this summer into the race and do well. It’s a funny thing when you look at an 18 mile technical mountain race as an easy race!

Other than that I’ve been training away, trying to get some speed back. Not that I ever had any real speed, it’s all relative.

I registered for my 21st Boston Marathon this week. I used my Baystate time from last year of 3:33:33, which would probably get me in under the cutoff. I’m guessing the cutoff is going to creep again this year and move closer to 5 minutes under the standard. But, since I have 10+ years in I get to register early and cut the line. Technically I could get in with a 3:39:59.

I can’t believe summer is almost over. I hope yours has been splendid. Mines been pretty good.

I got to ride my motorcycle more than I have in years. I have a back-road route that I take to work and back. I sometimes think that maybe an old guy like me should not be riding the motorcycle so much. My reaction times probably aren’t what they used to be. Getting into an accident with a car on a motorcycle typically doesn’t end well for the motorcyclist.

I’m basically a giant engine with a gas tank strapped to it traveling at high velocity.

As anyone who rides a motorcycle knows, the first thing people do when they learn that you ride is tell you their worst motorcycle story. That friend who got obliterated on the highway by a distracted driver. Here’s a tip; that’s not the least bit helpful. Don’t do that.

On the back roads I’ve got different challenges than on the highway. On a typical ride to or from work I’ll have one or two cars try to kill me. But, I’m pretty good at seeing it coming so I avoid these inelastic interactions with the other commuters. As a bonus I get to shake my head at them and give them the ‘WTF” body language.

Mostly it’s people pulling out. They just don’t see bikes. There’s also a fair amount of running stop signs and not using signals. You scan the landscape ahead of you and watch you the oncoming traffic. You can read the ‘body language’ of the cars. You get good at predictive analytics. You see a situation developing and make sure you’re not there when they do that stupid thing. It’s like a video game.

One thing I’m seeing more of this year is people crossing the lines. I know in Asia and certain metropolitan areas the lane lines are optional, but out where I live you’re supposed to stay on your side of the line. I don’t know why you need to drive on my side of the road. I see this behavior as a biker and runner too. It’s probably distracted driving. People are drifting all over the road.

So, my friends, look twice, save a life. Motorcycles are everywhere. Relax. There is no need to run that stop sign. Tighten it up a bit and keep to your own side of the road. We appreciate the effort. Spread the love.

I’m going to keep riding my bike. I always figured that’s how I’d meet my maker. Being distracted by a pretty girl on the sidewalk and burying myself in the back of a stopped truck.

But, I’m resilient. Are you?

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Section one – Resilience - http://runrunlive.com/resilience

Voices of reason – the conversation

Thank you for the great podcast experience. The book is The Tao of Running: Your Journey to Mindful and Passionate Running and of course is available through Amazon or Barnes & Noble as a paperback, Kindle, or Audible version. The new book, coming out in November, is The Mindful Runner, Finding Your Inner Focus, which can be pre-ordered through Amazon right now.

I have a website, thetaoofrunning.com, which has a lot of information for runners including all my past columns from Ultrarunning magazine and all my race reports from the past 20 years.

Bio Blurb:

GARY DUDNEY has been publishing articles on running, trail running, and ultrarunning for the past 20 years. His work has appeared in all the major running magazines, such as Runner’s World, Running Times, Trailrunner,and Marathon & Beyond. For Ultrarunning magazine, considered the “voice of the sport” of ultra long distance running, he’s served as a regular columnist since 2008, and he has additionally supplied the magazine with dozens of uniquely quirky race reports. Ideas for The Tao of Running were shaped by the 65 one hundred mile races he’s participated in and the almost two hundred other long distance races he’s completed. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Kansas in English Literature and his fiction credentials include stories in Boy’s Life magazine and in numerous literary magazines and one published novel, Cries-at-Moon of the Kitchi-Kit.

Book Blurb:

The Tao of Running offers a fresh perspective on the mental side of running while entertaining with vivid tales of running adventures. Going well beyond the standard training and racing advice found in most running books, it guides runners to a wider understanding of how running fits into their own aspirations, goals, and life philosophy, and how running can transform their lives.

The Tao of Running answers questions, such as: How does running evoke mindfulness and lead to stress reduction? How is running a transformative existential experience? How does running teach fundamental lessons about goals, self-awareness, and self-improvement? How does running promote special friendships and new perspectives on life?

No other book offers readers these multiple frameworks for understanding their running experiences along with lots of practical advice on getting the most out of running. Readers are guaranteed to gain a greater appreciation for the rewards and possibilities inherent in running.

Section two – One More Call - http://runrunlive.com/one-more-call

Outro

I managed to get down to Cape Cod last week. I got a 2:30 long run in on the beach. I wanted to go up to Coast Guard Beach which has a long, unbroken, straight line of a beach. But the logistics proved a bit of a hassle. Instead I went out to the Coast Guard Light Beach in Chatham.

I’ve been running there for years but It has become challenging to get enough distance. The beach used to run for miles but now it has been washed away and you can only get out for a mile or so before you run out of beach. I was standing there looking across the harbor opening trying to decide if I should swim across the 50 feet to the other side. A girl in a boat offered me a lift. I demurred.

Luckily it was low tide and I was able to cross the mud flats and cut through the old port over to the private beaches on the other side. In Massachusetts you have access to any ocean beach, private or public, below the high tide mark. I finally ran out of beach about an hour in, but was able to cobble together enough turns and crenulations to get 2:24 in before I made it back to my truck.

There were lots of families out and people walking. It was quite busy. There were old guys in dirty rubber coveralls working the low tide clam flats with rakes. The families got ferried out in skiffs for these excursions. The clammers had their own flat bottomed aluminum boats bobbing in the shallows.

The thought in the back of my mind was if it’s low tide now, am I going to be able to get back when I turn around? Am I going to be able to beat the tide? Sure enough when I got back to the Old Port the tide had erased the mud flats. I figured I was almost back I could just run through the water. I already knew the bottom was hard and it was shallow.

I had un-retired an old pair of Brooks Launch for the weekend and I could justify getting those wet. But, I found a trail off through the bush that circumnavigated the mud flats and got me back to the other beach without have to take the plunge. It added a little distance, which I needed anyhow. I was quite pleased with how things worked out.

Step into the trails and the beaches and all you adventures. It will work out.

…

Speaking of Cape Cod. I found a home for my Spaulding Boys Wagon Tongue Baseball Bat from the 1800’s.

Yvonne and I went to a bar in Harwich Port to watch the Patriot’s game and grab some dinner. It is named the Hot Stove Café. It is baseball themed. I was chatting with the owner. It occurred to me that I was surrounded by ancient baseball memorabilia. I told him I had something in my truck he might be able to use.

When I dropped it the next day he wasn’t around. Which is perfect, because he couldn’t say he didn’t want it!.

Just goes to show you. Everything works out. Patience. Mindfulness. Practice.

This is Chris your host. Well, it’s been a couple weeks since we talked and a couple weeks since I finished the Burning River 100. I’m back to full strength as near as I can tell. I seem to have recovered very well and very quickly, probably because I hiked so much of the last half.

Today we speak with Rhonda-Marie who a blind ultra-runner who did something amazing this summer. She ran the Last Vol State Run across Tennessee which is a 500KM or 314 mile race. But she did it unguided. You are going to love this interview. My audio editor Dimitri even commented on how this one was super interesting.

In section one I’ll do some Q&Q on the Burning River race, a bit of a wrap up, if you will. In section two I’m going to talk about kindness. Because we all need more kindness in our lives.

My recovery is going very well. I’ve started training again and have some races lined up that we’ll chat about later. The first week after the race I did mostly stretching and a couple bike rides. The second week I started running again.

Two weeks from stumbling across the finish line in Ohio I went up with some friends and ran the Wapack trail course one-way with them. We had a blast and I felt great. Very strong.

What you look for when doing recovery runs after an ultra is unique. When you go out it’s not that your legs feel tired. Just the opposite. When you first start the runs your legs feel great. Unique to post-ultra recovery runs is that somewhere in that run your legs can go like throwing a switch. It is all the more telling because you feel great up to that point, then your legs just disappear.

That hasn’t happened since I started back in. So I think I’m good.

If you listen to any interview or story of ultra runners, when they are asked what they learned, invariably the answer is that we are stronger than we think. Our bodies are designed for this stuff. All we have to do is train for it and ask our bodies. Then we have to decide to do it.

Whether it’s getting up off the couch for your first run, or stepping off the cliff edge into the yawning dark unknow of 100 miles, or 300 miles, you can do it if you decide to.

That’s it. That’s what separates the finishers from those that don’t start, the belief that you can do it.

You can do it. Just decide to do it and it is as good as done. That’s the hard part. The decision.

What hard thing are you going to decide to do today?

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Other-abled athlete Rhonda-Marie Parke has 8% vision. Traditionally Rhonda-Marie runs accompanied by guides; runners who call out obstacles along the way. With these guides she's run races from Marathon distances to 100 mile distances. She has also completed several end-to-end runs of various Ontario trails including The Bruce Trail (885 km), The Avon Trail (110 km) and The Thames Valley Trail (112 km). Rhonda-Marie has also ventured to the infamous Barkley Marathons. Rhonda-Marie continues to work in her community to encourage and create space for inclusive sport.

Accessing the Inaccessible

In July of 2018, Rhonda-Marie Parke will attempt to run The Last Annual Vol State race without the aid of guide runners.

Why Will Rhonda-Marie Proceed Unguided?

"My whole life, I have had to follow - even if the direction has been my choosing." - Rhonda-Marie Parke

Disability is diverse, dynamic, and ever changing. There is no such thing as universally accessible, especially in a 314 mile road race where cars are moving pieces, where animals are out and roaming, where fatigue, injury are all very very real; but then again, so is crossing the road to get to the library.

Rhonda-Marie continues to show other-abled athletes that they can get involved in the sports of their choice. Rhonda-Marie also continues to encourage running events to think about how to make their events accessible to athletes of ALL abilities. Inclusion in sport is not a given, it’s a process of adaptation and evolution of parameters. Ongoing conversation and community building is required.

What Is The Last Obstacle?

In addition Rhonda-Marie looks to bring light to a bigger issue facing those with disability - stigma. She continues to face intolerance when it comes to her participation in sport as some believe that there is no place for a blind athlete in such a dangerous event. Rhonda-Marie is confident in her athletic abilities and that through training and careful planning, there is no reason why she won't have the same chance at success as any other runner.

Help us show that if they have the desire and the drive, other-abled athletes have every right to participate in sport. Please help us send Rhonda-Marie to The Last Annual Vol State. With your help, she will strive to overcome the Last Obstacle.

Section two – Into the Unknown - http://runrunlive.com/burning-river-100-into-the-unknown

Outro

OK my friends, you have stumbled along a highway shoulder to the end of episode 4-391. Be careful out there.

Rhonda Marie is amazing, right? I felt seriously out of my depth with her. I think I’m going to try to see if I can’t guide a runner for Boston next year.

I am training again. I signed up for a few races. I’m going to run the Wapack Trail race on Labor Day weekend. It’s my club’s race. I’ll go up early, help set up, park cars and then run the race. I’m looking forward to it. I should have good juice in my legs from all the miles I did this summer.

Then I agreed to run a Ragnar the weekend of September 21st with my coach up in New York. Treat myself to a little adventure!

And finally, I signed up for the BayState Marathon again. It’s my go-to marathon for requalifying. I’ll take a shot at getting my number for 2020. My buddy Brian is running it too. We’ll see if I can get enough speed back by the end of October.

After the successful outing on the Wapack Trail I told coach I was ready to get back to work. He gave me a couple workouts for this week, as if to test me. I did a 1:40 step up run Tuesday. I went into the run feeling dead and didn’t have much hope for being able to step up to zone 3 effort for 30 minutes then up to zone 4-5 for an additional 30.

That’s a hard workout. I felt heavy but figured I’d just do what I could and see how long I could keep my legs turning. As I stepped up the effort my legs were surprisingly strong. I was able to hold a decent effort level for the last hour of the step up. Looking at the results, I wasn’t moving super fast but I’m happy with the effort 2 weeks out from the hundred.

Then Friday night I went down to my local track and knocked out some speed work. I did a ladder of 2X600, 2X800 and 2X1000 and was able to hang in there. The mechanics felt quite foreign. I was leaning back too much and was swinging my arms around. My butt muscles were sore afterwards.

It’s going to take awhile to get some speed back, but I think I’ll be fine.

…

…

I had a one day trip to Orlando this week. It’s a bout a 3-hour flight. I got up early and flew down, we had meetings and lunch and flew back. That put me out of the airport in Boston around 7:30 and getting after 8:00.

I was wiped so I figured I’d order a pizza to pick up as I whizzed by on my way out to the suburbs. So, I called up Siri and asked her to call the pizza place for me. I was in my truck on the highway and didn’t want to be too distracted by the phone. I got the guy on the phone and had the following conversation…

Me: “I’d like to order a Mushroom Pepperoni Pizza.”

Him: “Sure, name?”

Me: “Last or First?”

Him: “OK 15 minutes.”

And he hung up.

When I got to the pizza place I thought I’d ordered from I found out that Siri and I had different ideas on that. She gave me the number of another pizza place. It was late. I was almost home. I thought about just bailing out on the whole thing, but I knew, across town. 4 .4 miles away, a pizza place had made a pizza for me. So I bit the bullet and drove over there. Good karma.

When I got to the other pizza place, I went in, apologized for being late and asked if there wasn’t a mushroom Pepperoni pizza here waiting for me. He said, “What’s the name?”

I said, “I don’t know. You asked me for my name, I said ‘last or first’, you said ’15 minutes’ and hung up.”

He didn’t have a Mushroom Pepperoni. But, he did have a Sausage Pepperoni, for ‘Lester’. We agreed that was probably it. He felt bad about making the wrong pizza and gave me a discount. I didn’t tell him I never meant to order a pizza from him to begin with and was just barely able to drag p the will power to not stiff him.

This is going to be a long one. If this is your first time downloading please accept our humble apologies. This is Chris your friend and host and newly minted 100-mile ultra-runner. There’s a lot of context for all this, trust me, but you’re going to have to bear with me as I, (somewhat fittingly I might add), drop you into the culmination of this adventure.

This will be a 3 act play. We will start with some exposition in the form of my last two weeks of taper and a brief recorded chat with my coach going into the race.

Act one will commence and the play itself will roll out across an ultra-long race report. You might want to take this one in chunks or save it for your own multi-hour long run.

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Coach Jeff Kline

“Coach” as he is referred to by athletes has been training runners and triathletes globally for 20 years. The Coach is the founder and designer of Daily Fit Book. Although he is fully committed to the development and growth of DFB he will take on athletes of all levels that show a commitment and a strong desire to achieve new dreams and goals.

Section two – Into the Unknown - http://runrunlive.com/burning-river-100-into-the-unknown

Outro

OK my friends, you have hiked for 16 hours through to the end of episode 4-391. Nice work. Have a nap.

That closes another chapter for us here at RunRunLive. This summer is the 11th anniversary of starting the podcast. It’s good to see so many people still listening and following.

What’s next? I’ll more than likely run the Wapack 18 miler over Labor Day weekend. I highly recommend this race, especially if you are training for a fall race. It will make you strong!

…

When you take on these adventures, when you meet people, when you read books or any other interaction outside yourself there is a necessary exchange. Every time you go outside yourself and rub up against something external you are changed.

This is one of the beautiful things about life. You are always changing and growing. You could think of these exchanges as an infection of sort. Your body, mind and spirit absorb these influences and react to them. The result is something new. Something different.

If we are strong. If we are open. If we are positive. These infections become enhancements. They are additive. They make us better. We keep what fits. We become stronger in the process.

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-390. This is Chris your friend and host.

Today we continue with our ultra-training themes. I’ve got a long write up of my last hard week of training before my race. I’ve also got an interview with Pam who is an ultra-runner and the director of the Herren project. She’s a talker! But I think you’ll get some good thoughts out of it.

Again, this week since the interview is long and the write up is long I’ll just air the two segments.

I’m in my taper for my 100-miler at the end of the month. Today it actually that rarest of animals, a rest day.

Last weekend I knocked out an all-night-long 50 miler and a follow up 20 milers that you will hear all about today. Now I’m in my taper and trying top do some race prep.

…

Episode 390… 390 is another good year to talk about on the Julian and Gregorian calendars. There was the Thessalonica Massacre where the Roman governor killed a bunch of people who were rioting over a sporting event. See? This stuff never changes. Some popular chariot driver got killed and it kicked off a little revolt.

But, more importantly a Goth named Alaric was starting to make trouble up in Thrace. A Roman general named Stilicho, who was half Vandal spent the next 20 years pushing these Goths around. You may recognize Alaric. He ended up sacking Rome with an army of Visigoths in 410, which many historians consider the end for the Roman Empire.

And you know why the Goths were migrating West from the Steppes? Because they were being pushed on by the Huns. It’s all interrelated.

But, let’s set all this talk of barbarian hordes aside and talk about some ultra-running stuff.

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Pam Rickard

Over the 30+ years of her running career, Pam Rickard has completed countless races, including more than 75 marathons and ultra-marathons. During the past 10 years, her races have included a 7-day adventure across China’s Gobi Desert and a 100k trek through the Alps from Italy to France.

In 2008, her journey from addiction to recovery and redemption was featured in the book “A Race Like No Other,” New York Times writer Liz Robbins’ chronicle of the 2007 New York City Marathon. She was also a member of the 2016 6-person Icebreaker Run team, running across the US to bring awareness to mental health issues.

Pam lives in Rocky Mount, VA and serves as the Director of THP RUNS, an initiative of former NBA basketball player Chris Herren’s foundation, The Herren Project (THP). THP RUNS engages people to run, walk, and participate in healthy activities, helping each other, and others, live stronger, healthier lives. The initiative raises awareness and funding for THP’s mission, which includes providing addiction recovery resources, education and prevention initiatives across the country.

Outro

OK my friends, you have trotted through the woods listening to one note of binaural audio to the end of episode 4-390 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Good job. You are fit and ready to race.

My training is going great. I’m ready for my race. Anything can happen of course but I’ve done the bits that I can control.

Looking at the calendar I can see that the next episode is scheduled to fall on the weekend of the race. That’s probably not going to happen. I’ll figure something out.

As is my habit I tend to focus on running the race, not on social media or taking pictures. Don’t expect me to do a running commentary. I don’t see any facility for athlete updates either. I would suggest following Mike Croy and Kevin Green on the social media feeds because they will be with me and lucid.

I could give my phone to my wife but she is fairly useless with social media.

If anyone wants to say ‘hi’ at the race I’ll be driving out from Massachusetts the morning of the 27th so I can make check in Friday night. If you DM me or shoot me an email at cyktrussell at Gmail I’ll give you my contact info.

…

I found a couple odd things on Netflix this past week. One is a documentary by Werner Hertzog called Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Werner Hertzog is a German director. Every time you see a movie that caricatures German directors they are talking about Werner.

They let him bring cameras inside the Chauvet Cave. This is a cave that contains the oldest human paintings on earth (as far as we know). The paintings are pristine because a landslide sealed them off in antiquity. These are beautiful works of art from our ancestors of 30,000 years ago.

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-389. This is your friend Chris. I feel like I need to introduce myself and what we do here in case there might be a new listener or two. That’s a challenge, for a couple reasons. First, because we’ve been at this for over a decade. Over the arc of that decade you an I have been through many seasons of both our lives and our endurance adventures.

I certainly will share with you what adventures I’m pursuing in this season of the brief ride we call life, but it is going to be different from what we were talking about 3 years ago and will be different again, god willing, in 3 years. Spoiler alert, my current season is one of training for a 100 mile race and today’s episode will topically reflect that.

Today we talk to two guys I met and got to know through the seasons. Mike and Kevin, whose respective ‘noms de enduro-guerre’ are DirtDawg and JustFinish. (How weirdly cool is it that we get to give ourselves handles?) I’m talking to them because they have agreed to pace and crew me for my race in 4 weeks.

I’m also going to give you a longish review of my last training week which culminated in 93+ miles and a 50 mile long run.

Since the interview is long and my training update is long, you’re just getting the one article this week.

And – remember up in paragraph one where I said there were two reasons it’ shard to describe who we are here at RunRunLive and what we do? First, was it depends on what season we’re in. Second, is because you’re going to get what floats through my brain any particular week.

We have different themes but it always circles around the power of endurance sports to teach us, to change us and to give us perspective. That perspective is transformative in itself, and humbling. You and I, DirtDawg and JustFinish, we are all crushed by the gravity of change together in a community of endurance.

So here we are episode 389. 389 is another good year for classical reference. In 389 BC The Athenian general, Thrasybulus, led a force of triremes to levy tribute from cities around the Aegean and support Rhodes, where a democratic government was struggling against Sparta.

What’s interesting about this is that on this campaign, Thrasybulus captured Byzantium, so that he could impose a duty on ships passing through the Hellespont. The Hellespont is the narrow opening that connects the Agean Sea to the Black Sea. Many scientist believe this opening was caused by the ocean catastrophically blasting through this sliver of land as the sea rose after the last ice age and is the historical and cultural source of the great flood myths, like Noah.

Anyhow, Byzantium was a town founded by the Greeks 300 years earlier. It passed back and forth with the Persians and Greeks and Romans. In 330 AD Constantine moved the seat of the Roman Empire there and founded what would become Constantinople.

Constantinople held out until 1543, when the Ottoman Turks finally took it over and now it is Istanbul, the heart of Turkey. See, 389, another suitable number.

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My training is going well. I’ve got one more big week of miles then I’ll taper into the race at the end of the month. Nothing is broken, so we’ll see. It’s all good.

Over the last few weeks you probably saw a plague of emails from social media sites and others, many of whom you probably don’t remember signing up for. This is because of the recently enacted GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation enacted by the European Union. It’s basically the rules around what you can and can’t do with people’s data and what you have to tell them when you’re doing it.

So, in the spirit of the GDPR I’m going to let you know what I’ve been doing with your data.

When we first met, your data and I, your data was very shy and didn’t interact much. But, over time, as we got to know each other, and spend time together, your data and I have formed a bond of mutual respect and affection.

There have been many warm summer evenings where your data and I have taken long walks on the beach and shared stories around an open campfire in the twinkling starshine. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been a perfect gentleman with your data! (well there was that one night where we had too much sangria at the Cinco de Mayo party, but, let me not tell tales about the chance encounters of consenting architectures)

Mostly we just cuddle.

So, yeah, your data is safe with me.

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Mike Croy (DirtDawg) and Kevin Green (JustFinish)

Kevin is currently training for the Marquette 50. He finished Burning River in 2010 and the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning in 2011. Kevin is a project manager in the automation industry, is married to Stacy and has two very active daughters, Nora and Leah. He plans to relaunch http://www.JustFinish.com this fall.

…

Mike “Dirt Dawg” Croy is a father, husband, runner, yoga teacher working with veterans, homeless shelters and educators, and serves as a high school principal working with at risk high school students. Mike has run up to a 100 miler and pac

ed at a few more. He had also run over 20 marathons and organized several fat ass ultras over the years.

Outro

OK my friends, you have staggered through the dark to the end of episode 4-389 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Good for you, because theirs not much cover and it was pretty hot.

Like I said, my training going well and I’ve got nothing to complain about.

My garden in coming in. Looks like I’m going to get beans, tomatoes and maybe some squash. I harvested enough lettuce and kale for 3 lunches this week. And my berries are coming in. I was just out there and picked a few. The birds were screaming at me like I was picking their berries! I’m not sure the half pint of berries is an even trade for the half pint of blood I gave top the mosquitoes to get them.

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I notice my thighs are getting bigger. That’s an ultra thing. I remember it from 10 years ago. I will probably try to see if I can use this fitness in the fall for a marathon. I remember I hade 2 or 3 really good years after the last ultra cycle I trained through, so maybe there’s a correlation. Maybe that’s the secret. Go deep every few years and then coast for a few!

Certainly, setting bigger goals drives bigger changes. In life as in the training effect. Set a big goal and do the work to get there. It’s not rocket science. Try it. You’ll see. Do something that scares you.

I was a little down after Boston. I came into this a bit mentally jaded. I look at all the stuff I’ve done over the last 20 years both personally and endurance sports wise and I get a bit blue. I think ‘Geez, I’ve done all this stuff, what the heck am I going to do now? And, do I have enough left in me to do anything significant anymore?’ I almost feel like I’m looking at my life in the rearview mirror.

But, again, I’m learning that the basic truths are still true. Set that big goal and you will figure out how to get there. Doesn’t matter if your 16 or 60. It’s what you do today.

I get asked in my role by board of directors “What are the results going to be this quarter?” And the way I answer that is, that I can’t tell you exactly what is going to happen in the short term, but I can tell you that we are absolutely doing the things we need to do today to be where we need to be when that time comes. Because that is what I can control.

Are you setting goals that scare you?

Are you doing what you need to do today, right now, to be where you want to be 6 months from now?

If not, set the timer for 20 minutes and don’t’ stop working until it goes off.

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-388. This is Chris, your host for today. Yak farmer. Zombie hunter. And amateur consumer of history.

388 is an odd number. In the year 388 by the Gregorian Calendar and the Julian Calendar Theodosius I consolidated power in the Western Roman Empire by beating up Magnus Maximus. Magnus Maximus is a kick-ass name. Magnus Maximus was from Britania and usurped power in one of the messy transitions that went on as the Empire was starting to fall apart.

It had a larger impact a century or so later because when he left Britain to go fight Theodosius, Magnus Maximus took all the available soldiers with him, which left Britain pretty much unprotected.

You see, when the Romans assimilated a region, like Britain, they said, “Hey you don’t need forts or weapons because we’re here to protect you now.” Standard operating procedure to keep the rebellions down.

When the Romans pulled out those pesky Scots and Irish started raiding and the Romanized Brits had nothing to protect themselves with. Someone came up with the bright Idea of hiring in some Anglo-Saxons from the continent as mercenaries – and we know how that ended up working out. That’s why when you refer to England you’re calling them Anglo-Saxons now.

Anyhow – 388.

Today we talk with Mike who runs (see what I did there) Mike’s Running School. We talk about mechanics and form and how to teach running.

I’m also going to talk about my Ultra-training. I’m learning a lot! It’s interesting. And I’ll do a bunch of product reviews around all the new stuff I’ve gotten in the last couple months.

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It’s the summer solstice and the days are long up here. Not too hot yet but long. I got my garden in. I’m been having a pitched battle of my own with the various critters and varmints. It will all be worth it if I can have that one perfect, warm tomato on a bed of fresh basil.

It’s also baseball season. I’ve got a baseball problem that I need help with.

My wife was cleaning this week and tried to throw out that old baseball bat I have. Now, I found this bat when I was cleaning out an old house that my dad bought 30-40 year’s ago. It was just kicking around all these years and somehow I still have it.

So I looked it up on the internet. Turns out it is a Spaulding Boys Wagon Tongue bat from somewhere around the 1880’s. Yeah. I have a 140 year old bat. I don’t want it. But, I would like it to go to a good home.

Anyone want or need a 140 year old baseball bat?

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Mike Antoniades

Mike is the founder and Performance & Rehabilitation Director of the Movement & Running School. Mike’s passion for Rehabilitation, Running and Speed began a long time ago when as teenager he had a serious knee injury.

He specialised in movement re-patterning and rehabilitation after injury or surgery and focused on Speed & Running training for athletes of different sports.

He set-up the first Rehabilitation & Speed centre in the UK 1999 and his Clients include among others : athletes and teams from, The English Premiership, English Championship, German Bundesliga Rugby Union, Rugby league, Handball, Lacrosse, European Olympic Associations as well as Elite Track & Field athletes including World & Olympic Gold Medallists.

Mike has been a coach for over 35 years and began coaching in 1982. He has worked in the UK, Europe and the USA. He has coached at professional and academy level and is a consultant for a number of professional Soccer clubs as well as track and field and Marathon athletes in the UK and Europe.

Outro

OK my friends, nice work, you have run crisply with perfect form to the end of episode 4-388 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

It’s been the end of an easy week for me. We’ll see what coach has in store for me next week.

Buddy the ancient wonder dog is doing well. It’s been cooler and dry. What really bothers him is the humidity. When you are mostly covers in a black fur coat it’s hard to cool your core. I know this from experience.

Coincidently, I was reading this week that back hair is one of the DNA snippets that we inherited from the Neanderthals.

I’m short on time today so I’m going to move you quickly to the exit.

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One quick story. Last year they replaced the ignition on my old motorcycle. When they did that they saved the old key. Now I have one key to start it and another to open the gas tank and get into the seat compartment.

This week when I got home form the office I noticed that I had lost the gas tank key. Which is a problem. I had about 110 miles on that tank of gas. I typically hit the reserve tank around 140-150 miles.

I called the Honda guys and asked for help. They forwarded me to Jim’s Key and Lock out in Leominster. By the way Minster is an Anglo-Saxon word that means church.

Turns out these tank locks are super easy to pick. Like child’s play. The guy popped it right open, read the key code off the lock and made me a couple more keys before I ran out of gas.

Wasted a day but learned something new.

I guess the thing I learn as I get older is not to freak out. I mean when I first saw the key was missing I could have dropped into full-on panic mode and gotten all ‘the sky is falling’ and ‘Woe is me’ but that doesn’t get you any closer to a solution.

Life’s full of these little irritating events. This one threatened at first blush to turn my old motorcycle into a paper weight, but it all worked out.

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-387. This is Chris, your endurance partner for today’s workout.

Today we have a chat with Gene Dykes who is currently knocking down most of the over 70 distance records. He’s found some sort of fountain of youth and just keep s getting faster.

In section one I’ll give you an update on my 100 miler training and what I’ve learned. In Section two I’ll talk about the aging athlete.

Buddy the elderly wonder dog is hanging in there. He goes the first 2 miles of all my trail runs with me. He got 5 runs in last week. Then he sleeps. I sometimes have to carry him up the stairs when his back hips don’t work. And I don’t expect him to jump up into my truck anymore. It’s ok. He’s done his part. Now it’s my turn.

I’ve been training consistently. Typically 6 miles Tuesday, 10 Wednesday and 6 Thursday then back-to-back longs on the weekends. It’s not a bad cadence. The trails are drying out.

The mosquitoes are out but those only get me if I stop too long. As we get into the summer the deer flies will show up and I’ll have to get some of those sticky patches. They are real pests.

I booked my hotel for the ultra. And I got some wonderful news today. Dirtdawg and JustFinish aka Mike Croy and Kevin Green are going to crew and pace for me. Both those guys have run this course. This is a big bonus.

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I got a haircut this weekend, actually on Memorial Day. The place I usually go was closed for the holiday. I went to a lower end clip joint chain that was open.

I was a bit afraid with the guy I got. I haven’t had high quality experiences with this chain. But I had a business trip and needed to get it cleaned up.

The kid was wearing a wrinkled white tee-shirt, looked rather slept-in, with a sleeveless black denim vest covered in studs. Quite disheveled. He had goth tattoos all over him and piercings. Showing my age and upbringing I wondered if putting my grey head in his hands was a smart thing to do.

I had just finished reading Catra Corbett’s new book about how she was a goth meth addict before she got in to ultra-running. But, looking at this kid I figured he was a bit overweight to be an addict.

Besides, it’s not hard to cut my hair, what’s left of it that is. You can’t really screw it up.

He did a very precise job. Worked me over like I was some important bonsai topiary. Even worked on my crazy old-man eyebrows.

I really need to work on my assumptions and stop profiling people. We all turn into our parents at some point, don’t we?

On with the show!

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

M

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

I’m sure you can make some of the awkward pauses go away, but I suppose trying to figure out what to do when we were talking over each other will be tougher.

I had fun – it’s always fun to talk about running!

I’ve attached a couple recent pictures that were pretty good:

One shows me during a 24-hour track race a couple weeks ago (I only ran for 14 hours of the Dawn To Dusk To Dawn, though) where I set USATF age group track records for 50K, 50 miles, 100K, and 12 hours.

The other shows me at the finish line of the Rotterdam Marathon on April 8, where I ran 2:57:48 to eclipse Ed Whitlock’s 3:00:23 world age 70 record.

Outro

OK my friends you have set an impressive age group record while progressing to the end of episode 4-387, nice work.

Two of my training buddies, from my age group had a good day at the Vermont Cities marathon over the weekend. They got great weather. Overcast and cool. Brian, who ran a 3:35 at Baystate with me in the fall, knocked out a 3:29 change! And Tim powered through to a 3:16. Now officially the slow guy again!

Watched an great documentary on Netflix called Chuck Norris vs Communism about the impact of bootleg videos on Romanians in the 80’s. It’s been out for a while but I hadn’t seen it yet. Really well done. You’ll like it. Especially if you lived through that era.

I have a big weekend coming up. If I can pull it off I’m going to run 35 on Saturday and another 20 on Sunday. Yikes!

I had a good week – got all my runs in. I had a business trip to Salt Lake and I used that to practice more of this miserable, exhausted running that I’m supposed to be practicing.

Ran 6 miles Tuesday morning. Flew out late to Salt Lake. Got about 5 hours sleep. Got up and went exploring Wednesday morning.

I was originally aiming for the mountains but I ran by a canal, maybe a river, with a wide path so I turned onto that for the bulk of my run. I ended up getting around 9 miles in, partly because I was running short on time and partly because I ran into a fence.

The canal trail literally ran into a chain link fence. I think it was because there was a school nearby and they were trying to keep the kids out. There was a kid size hole at the bottom. You know how they bend up the corner of the chain link to get under? But, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to wriggle under a fence in the suburbs of West Jordan to get that last mile in.

It was a nice run. The trail was wide and crushed rock and flat. It ran behind people’s houses. A whole line of ¼ acre lots. It’s always interesting to look into people’s backyards in a voyeuristic way. Some people had gardens, some had chickens and some had angry dogs.

The river or canal itself was what I would call grey water. I don’t know if that is just the color of the water in Salt Lake or if it is some sort of legacy drainage system. It didn’t smell bad, but it didn’t make me want to go for a swim either.

Since it’s spring the canal was full of wild ducks and their little gangs of ducklings. I was subjective to maximum duckling cuteness the whole time as they scurried and paddled away from this strange lumbering thing on the trail in the slanting morning sun. I even passed a couple ‘joggers’ out there.

On my way back, when I left the trail I had to navigate the now bustling streets of suburbia. At one point I was coming up to an intersection and saw a crossing guard. These are the community volunteers who are posted at busy intersections near schools with a reflective vest, a held held stop placard and a righteous attitude.

As I was lumbering up the sidewalk towards the intersection I caught the vigilant woman’s eyes and gave her the conspiratorial nod. She moved out and stopped traffic for me! I tipped my hat and said “You’re the best!”

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-386. This is Chris, your host. How are we doing on the fine spring day? I love May. Don’t’ you? Up here in New England it’s a time of rebirth. The trees and bushes go from brown to green in the span of a few days like one of those slow motion nature videos.

We are close by the summer solstice. We get back all those long dark winter days. The sunrise today is 5:19 AM and the sunset is 8:02. Plenty of time to get stuff done! It’s still cool in the mornings and hasn’t gotten hot yet during the days. This is the week after Mother’s Day when those of us who have read the farmer’s almanac start planting our gardens, and those of us who are over enthusiastic have to replant what they killed by planting it two weeks ago!

Today I have an interview with Pat who is from Calgary and ran his first Boston this year in the epic weather. In section one I’ll give you a write up of the trail race I ran last weekend. And in section two a quick book report on the second book in the Takeshi Kovacs series. A real grab-bag of topics.

You might ask, Chris it seems like you’re just stuffing random topics into a show to make a deadline. And I would answer no, I’m embracing a random universe, I’m satisfying the souls of the renaissance woman and men who are endurance athletes and well… a deadline is a deadline!

My training for my first hundred miler is going as well as can be expected. I topped out a couple 50+ mile trail weeks and now I’m in a recovery week to get the benefit. With the long days I can go out in the morning in the forest behind my house. I can be back before most people are even up!

It’s beautiful out there. The trails are drying up nicely. I take Buddy the elderly wonder dog with me for the first 2-mile loop and he loves it. He’s a trooper. In the morning it’s cool and the bugs aren’t out yet.

Let me tell you the story about Buddy’s soccer ball.

Many moons ago when I was a soccer coach for my kids I ended up with a kid’s soccer ball in my bag of balls from the local field. It was one of the little ones for little kids. It eventually ended up in my front yard and became the dog’s soccer ball. Buddy never popped it, he just played with it. For a decade it was a fixture in the yard.

This spring, unknown to me, it disappeared. A couple weeks ago I was out in the trails and there was Buddy’s soccer ball a ¼ mile from the house on the trail. Then yesterday I was out and I saw it again, now maybe ¾ of a mile out on the trail.

It seems some friendly interloping dog came into our yard and took Buddy’s soccer ball for a carry in the woods. The problem is that I don’t come back the same trail I got out. But, yesterday it didn’t seem right to abandon it so I grabbed it and carried it with me as I was running through the woods.

I was like some grade schooler goalie given a coach’s penalty. “Take that ball with you and give me 20 laps!”

A muddy, half-deflated kid’s soccer ball isn’t as easy to carry as you would think. I didn’t want to put it under my arm, like an American football, because it was quite muddy. I had to sort of clench it in one hand. It was a bit unwieldy.

But, now it is back where it belongs. Lying in the grass beside an elderly border collie… until a thieving rover roves by once more.

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Patrick Hanlon

Patrick Hanlon, 51, is an educator, writer and photographer based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has been a long distance runner for the last 9 years and can be regularly found running along the Bow River. He has completed 11 marathons including Big Sur, Edmonton, Calgary, Nova Scotia, Nashville and Boston. His account of the 2018 Boston Marathon can be read at: Gratitude Versus Expectation: A Marathon Meditation

Outro

Ok my friends you have stumbled down a rocky slope to the bottom of the mountain that was Episode 4-386 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Mission accomplished. Have a smoothie. Throw in some extra Kale.

I started figuring out the logistics for the 100Miler. It is the Burning River 100 in southern Ohio. It starts on Saturday July 28th at 4:00 in the morning. I am not going to try to guess a finish time but it will be some time Sunday Morning. It’s a point to point. They bus you out from the finish at 3:00 in the morning.

The course doesn’t look to bad. It’s only got a few thousand feet of gain and loss over the 100. So nothing like the Wapack. The timing is a bit troublesome. With that start time I’ll be running the last half of the race in the dark. Doesn’t sound like I’ll be getting much sleep that weekend.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to drive out and get a hotel or maybe rent a camper or something. I know I won’t be in any shape to drive afterwards.

And, this is where you come in. I need pacers and crew. Who wants to come pace me through a section of the last 50 miles? I’m going to be going super slow. It’s going to be the middle of the night. All you have to do is keep me on course and say encouraging things like, “Come on, you can barely see the bone protruding through the skin, rub some dirt on it and suck it up!”

Shoot me an email and we’ll make a date.

Guess what else?

I got my old motorcycle running this week. Yup, that bike that I bought factory fresh in 1985. It lives.

Here’s the story.

Last summer the clutch started getting soft on me and I didn’t have time, money or energy to attend to it so I just packed it away into the garage for the winter.

I dropped it off last week at the shop and had them take a look. With a clutch problem it can either be simple or hard. It might be simply air in the line or fluid or a leak in a line. Or it can be the slave cylinder or the oil seals where the clutch meets the engine. I was a bit terrified that this was going to be one of those take the engine apart kind of things.

I know from experience that if this was a car that clutch could run me $1500 dollars and I wasn’t really excited about spending that on a $1,000 motorcycle.

I called the guy and asked if they had figured out what was wrong.

He said, “You’ll have to call back later we’re still building the estimate.”

That sounded to me like I should start mentally preparing for the worst.

I called back. My heart sank when he said, “I’m sorry but it’s the slave cylinder and an oils seal.”

Then he continued, reluctantly, “It’s going to be $238 dollars.”

I heaved a sigh of relief and told him to go ahead. Got to love the simple engineering of a Honda motorcycle!

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-385. This is Chris, your host. Who am I? I don’t really know. But, I’m working on it. And I’m hopeful.

In this podcast we talk about endurance sports and other complimentary topics that can help you find succor in your life. We have been doing it for 10+ years now. It’s been a fine ride.

Been quite a spring so far hasn’t it? Boston was epic. I got a lot of positive feedback on the race report. Thank you. I took a little extra time putting my thoughts together there so I’m glad it resonated. I wanted to tell a good story and see if I could put you in it, so you could live the story with me.

Particularly rewarding for me was to hear from others that were in the race and have them say “You nailed it!” and forward the post to their friends.

Eric is putting together a video from what he could reclaim form the race and he’s going to use part of my audio to support the video story. His camera is waterproof, but it was raining so hard the water got into the microphone and essentially muted it.

I recovered fine from the race. No problems. Got busy trying to make up for all the bad eating and drinking I had been holding at bay during the training cycle!

Last weekend we held our 27th Groton Road Race. We got a bit of rain, but it was very successful. We had good numbers this year, the shirt was great, and people seemed to really enjoy the earlier starting times.

The cooler temps made for some good race times. I ‘ran’ the race on Saturday this year, really just jogged it. But, good enough to get my name in the results to keep my 27-year streak going. We stopped to pick up trash and other things. Even after I led a crew to clean up the course the previous weekend, there is always a few fresh beer cans that we have to police up.

Teresa set a PR in the 10K this year. She ran it in 53 minutes. That beats my official time of the day before. Good for her. It is great to be young.

I’ve launched into my training cycle for the 100 miler this week after a couple light recovery weeks. I’ll be running 3 days of middle distance during the week then back-to-back distance on the weekends. All of it on trails.

I’ve been getting up this week and heading out into the trails early. I take Buddy the Extremely old Wonder Dog for the first 2 miles than I head back out. It’s beautiful in the trails in the morning. The sun comes up around 5:40 and I’ve been getting out by 6:00. Really nice. You should try it.

Today we have a conversation with Brian Burk who is a an ultra-runner with many adventures to his credit and is also a writer.

In section one I am going to read you an old post on how to recover from a marathon because I thought that might be timely for people. In section two I’m going to talk about future narratives and red blood cells. A bit of the old vinny-vin-vino.

…

I’ve been exploring a meditation site called ‘Calm’. They have a free 7-day beginners program where the guided sessions are about 10 minutes long. A lot of it is exposition, i.e. instruction, but it’s a good basic introduction to breathing meditation.

The day 5 session is particularly good. Or at least I found it resonated. It addresses the ability to let go of the need to do something. It’s primarily a phone app, but I went to the website instead. As an extra-bonus of the web site they have a looping white noise track that is pretty good for concentration enhancement that plays automatically.

But, I digress. I recommend you find a quiet place and listen to the day 5 session. (Ironically I stopped to take some quick notes so I wouldn’t forget to tell you about it!)

We all have our lists and impending deadlines and these things tend to push us through life by creating tension that drives us to do stuff. But that causes us to rush through life without looking out the window to see what is going on within and without.

This session explains how to shut that rush to do things down and how that gives you a healthier perspective. And ‘perspective’ is the correct word. Because, through focus you can observe the scurrying of the mind to get things done, and without judgement, know it for what it is.

You gain an awareness that you don’t have to fill every moment with something. That there is a value of non-doing. Through practice you learn to give yourself permission to pause.

Learn how to give yourself permission to pause.

But not now!

We have to get…

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Section one – Recovery after a marathon- http://runrunlive.com/9-steps-to-recovery-after-a-marathon

Voices of reason – the conversation

Brian’s running adventure started in 2000 stationed on top of the world, at Thule Air Base, Greenland he ran 1200 miles. As a member of the Air Force Special Operations Command the worlds events around Sept 11th distracted him from his running. In 2005 he ran his first marathon while stationed in the United Kingdom.

Since that time with a lot of help and inspiration from the running community he has raced distances from 5k up to and including three 100 Mile races and nine 24 hour events. Some of Brian’s achievements and personal bests are:

With a passion for writing Brian has had two features published in a national running magazine, on various running blogs and on his own at briansrunningadventures.com. Brian’s first novel, Running to Leadville, a fictional story about running the Leadville Trail 100 has been well received by runners and non-runners alike. His second book 26.2 Tips to run your best MARATHON, will help you shave time off your race results with running any faster. You can follow Brian on Twitter @cledawgs Instagram @cledawgs and Facebook at Brians Running Adventures.

Section two – The importanceof narrating the future – http://runrunlive.com/the-importance-of-communicating-a-future-narrative

Outro

My friends you have stumbled through the finisher chute of episode 4-385 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Time to get something to eat, rest those feet and treat those blisters.

We switched from winter to summer up here. I went out at lunch for 6 miles of easy road work yesterday and it was in the high 80’s Fahrenheit. I wanted to see how it felt. I tried to convince my body that the heat wasn’t uncomfortable or even unknown, just a new thing, or a remembered thing to run with. It wasn’t bad.

My Plantar Fasciitis is flaring up right now. I think it’s a combination of things, but I have to keep an eye on it. Make sure it doesn’t’ go chronic on me. I have a couple back to back long runs this weekend in the trails and we’ll see how it feels out the other end of that.

Have another podcast tip for you… With these longer runs I have a need for some long-form content. I listened to a great interview of Irish poet Michael Longley by Krista Tippet on the podcast “On-Being”. This is one of those podcasts where you have to read the notes and see if the topic or person is really something you want to stick in your head. Some of it is not for me. But the interview of Michael Longley was chock full of wisdom. Nuggets like “self-importance engraves its own headstone”, and “art and poetry require a certain insouciance”.

The episode is called “ the vitality of ordinary things”. Maybe it was the heat, but I very much enjoyed the wisdom when I was out on my lunch run yesterday.

Ok my friends, I have to go, but remember you have my permission to pause and when you pause to remember the magic in ordinary things.

And thank you all for the compliments on my Boston piece. As the poet says, ‘It’s ok to accept compliments, but don’t inhale them.”

The 2018 Boston Marathon

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast– Boston 2018

We are near the ‘one-mile-to-go’ marker. Eric says something about one more hill.

The crowds are thicker and more enthusiastic than they should be, but this is Boston. The spectators take it as seriously as the runners. A multi-colored sea of umbrellas lines the road and the encouragement is loud enough to rise above the storm. Because it is the Boston Marathon, and this is our race.

I am slowed but not walking. Eric has those ultra-marathon legs and is pulling me. If he wasn’t there I might, I just might, take a walk break. But I don’t. And we grind on.

…

This race has ground me down but has not beaten me. The rain continues to come in sheets and stand-you-up blasts of cold wind. It is a din of squishing footfalls and the wet-plastic scrunching of ponchos, trash bags and rain coats. All cadenced by the constant buffet and roar of wind-driven rain smashing into humans.

That one more hill Eric is talking about is not really a hill. But I know what he means. It’s Eric’s 10th Boston and he has decided to run it in with me even though my pace has deteriorated in these last 2 miles as my legs lose the battle to this Boston course.

I will not stop.

It’s my 20th Boston so I remember when they added this underpass to avoid a road crossing many years ago. I remember the old days of looking ahead and wishing with all my heart to see the runners disappearing to the right onto Hereford Street. Now we looked ahead to see the moving tide of storm shattered humans jog left and dip under and out the other side.

We don’t walk or slow our grimly purposed grind through the storm. We rise out of the underpass. Shifting to avoid the walkers or stumblers, or just having to jostle through yet another weaving, wet, exhausted, human-trash-bag blasted into our personal space by the gusty rain.

There is not much antipathy left for these wayward castaways. An elbow, a shoulder, a tired shove and we all keep moving. It’s like being inside a washing machine filled with ponchos and rain gear with a cold firehose turned on you at the same time.

We all just want to finish.

Ironically I feel a tail wind slap me on the back as we grind up Hereford. The only tail wind on the course. Maybe a bit insulting. Too little, too late.

Eric says his family is in the crowd somewhere up by the turn onto Bolyston and I grudgingly grind a wide tangent as he searches the crowd. Nothing against his family but I don’t think I’d stop here to see God if he were behind the barrier. The pull of that finish line is too strong, and I’m exhausted from 3-plus hours of pummeling rain and wind and cold.

Typically, in a rainy race people will strip out of their protective clothing in the first few miles as they warm up. Not today. They never warmed up. But now, as they approach the finish line and the anticipated succor of hotel rooms and hot showers they begin to shed their rain carapaces en masse.

For the last 10 miles I have been looking out the 6-inch circle of my found poncho’s hood. Now as I pull it back and look down Bolyston it is an apocalyptic scene.

Usually in high wind situations the discarded rain ponchos and trash bags will blow across the course like dangerous plastic tumbleweeds to tangle the runners’ legs or lodge in the fencing. Not today. The cold rain is so heavy that it plasters the detritus to the pavement like so many giant spit balls.

Through this apocalyptic landscape we grind out the last ¼ mile of this storied course. There is not much of a sprint in my stride as we push through the timing mats. I pull up the found poncho so the timers can see my number. I’m still clutching my bottle in one cold-cramped claw. I never finished my drink. I’m not sure I could let go of it if I wanted to. My hands ceased to function as hands more than an hour ago.

Grimacing we finish. Around us runners throw their arms up in celebration. The look on their faces is a combination of triumph, relief and disbelief. They have survived the worst weather that Boston has ever offered up. They got it done on a day that was at once horrible and at the same time the most epic journey in a marathon most will ever experience.

And not just any marathon.

The Boston Marathon.

They lived to tell the tales, and this one will be talked about for decades.

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I was wrong.

I thought I had seen everything and raced in every type of weather. I have never seen anything like this. The closest I have come was the last leg of the Hood to Coast Relay in 2016. I had the same 30 mph head wind with the same driving rain. But the difference that day in Oregon was that the rain was a few degrees warmer and I wasn’t going 26.2 miles on one of the hardest marathon courses.

I have experience.

I ran my Boston PR in ’98 in a cold drizzle. I rather enjoyed the Nor’easter of ’07. I had a fine day in the rain of 2015.

Friday , as the race was approaching, when we knew what the weather was shaping up to be I wrote a blog post to calm people down. In that post I said not to worry too much, it’s never as bad on the course as the hype makes it out to be.

I said that the cooler temps were good for racing if you could stay out of the wind. I mollified the nervous by noting that in the mid-pack there are thousands of people to draft with. I cautioned against wearing too much rain gear as it would catch the wind and slow you down. Instead, I recommended, wear a few layers to trap the heat.

I was wrong.

I have never seen anything like this.

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Most races would have canceled or delayed in the face of this type of weather. Not Boston. This type of weather at Chicago would have resulted in a humanitarian crises on the scale of an ill-timed tsunami rising out of Lake Michigan. This weather at New York would have driven the runners and spectators into emergency shelters.

Not the Boston Marathon.

This old dame of a foot race has been continuously pitting the best runners in the world against each other for 122 years. This race is part of our cultural fabric. It’s special. We don’t stop for weather. It’s too important to us to stop for anything.

I remember emailing Dave McGillivray from a business trip in the days before the 2007 race as the Nor’easter bore down on New England. I asked him if the reports were true, that they were considering canceling the race? He responded matter of factly that he didn’t know about anybody else but he was going to be there.

It’s not bravado or false courage. It’s a mindset that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.

The organization, the athletes, the cities and towns and the spectators are all in it together. Together, on Monday, we all screwed up our grit and ran our race despite what wrath nature decided to unpack for us.

The athletes who run Boston are not the type to give up. They have earned the right to be there. Either by qualifying or working to raise thousands of dollars. This is not the one-and-done bucket list crowd. This is a cohort of seasoned endurance athletes who have trained hard and long over many years to get here. If they skipped runs for bad weather they would never have made it to the start in Hopkinton.

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For the first time ever I decided to skip the Athlete’s village in Hopkinton. From past experience I knew it was going to be a mess. Based on the reports I have from other runners it was like a medieval battlefield scene. The athletic fields turned into ankle deep mud under the marching of 30,000 runners. Athletes struggled to find shelter under the tents. Some crawled under vehicles in the parking lot in an attempt to get out of the elements.

It was already raining and blowing hard as the day broke in Hopkinton. The temperatures struggled to find 40 degrees. There was no good place to be. It was a mess. There was no way to stay dry. Waiting around to be called to the corrals runners started to accumulate a core temperature loss that would haunt them throughout the race. The organization did the best they could but it was miserable and chaotic.

I avoided it.

My youngest daughter offered to drop me off in Hopkinton and I took the spectator bus downtown (instead of the athlete bus to the Village). Seeing what the conditions would be, I took Eric’s offer of safe harbor at Betty’s place.

It’s a long story, a Boston story, and it goes like this… A long time ago, a family from St. Louis owned a home in Hopkinton. They started a tradition of hosting the visiting Missouri runners in that home. Eventually that family from St. Louis sold the home to Betty’s Family. They continued the tradition and this is where Eric, one of my running buddies, who is from St. Louis, has been sheltering before his Boston Marathons.

This year, Betty has sold the house and moved into a senior center, right next to the start. She arranged to have the center’s hall open to the Missouri runners. I joined a dozen or so gathered there in the warmth, replete with food and drink and good nature to wait for the start. We didn’t know how lucky we were to have this safe harbor.

Around 10:30 Eric, another runner and I made our goodbyes and started walking to the corrals. We walked out into the storm. We were ostensibly in wave 3 corral 3 but were soon to find out that much of the rigorous Boston starting procedure had been blown out the window.

I made them stop at the big porta-potty farm on Main Street. I took my dry race shoes, socks and hat out of their bag and wiggled into them in the cramped plastic box.

Ready to race. I tossed the sweat pants, old shoes and ski hat to the volunteer who was stuffing soggy cast offs frantically into a rattling plastic bag.

I have raced and run in all kinds of weather. I generally know what to do and how to dress. Monday I dressed for racing in a 35-40 degree rainy day. I had trained in much colder weather. I wasn’t expecting this day to be too cold, especially once we started racing and warmed up. The only real risk was at the end of the race. If we were forced to walk or slow down we might get chilled. I dressed based on my experience from 19 previous Boston Marathons and 60+ marathons over the last 25 years.

And I was wrong.

I wore a new pair of high-cut race shorts that I bought at the expo. I have a rule of thumb, especially after a winter training campaign, 35 and above is shorts weather. We were close to but above that line. I slipped on a thin pair of calf sleeves in deference to possible wind chill and rain. Calf sleeves are good compromise between shorts and tights if the weather is on the line and add additional protection against cramping on cold days.

For the top I added a layer to what I would usually wear. I had a thin tech tee shirt that I had made into a tank by cutting off the sleeves as my base layer. On top of that I wore a high-quality long sleeve tech tee I got from Asics for the 2014 NYC race and on top of that my Squannacook singlet with the bib number. People forget that the bib number is waterproof and wind proof and helps keep your core warm. Three layers plus the oversized bib should keep the core warm.

I wore a pair of tech gloves that were designed for this in-between type weather. You wouldn’t want to wear these when the temps got below freezing but they usually work well in the in-between temps. I topped it off with a simple Boston race hat from 2017. That’s the same scheme I’ve used in countless 35-40 degree rainy runs.

I was wrong.

Mentally I was prepared. I’ve been doing this too long to worry about things I can’t change. I was happy to not have another hot year. I had had a decent training cycle and my fitness was good. I had avoided injury except for a minor niggle in my high left hamstring. I was ready to race. I slept well. I was ready to respect Boston.

I was wrong. This was a different thing. This was different than anything I had ever raced in.

…

65 seconds. That’s how long Eric said it took me to poop at mile 9. I knew those porta-potties were there in the parking lot across from the reservoir. I have used them in previous years. I told Eric I wanted to stop.

We had come to the conclusion that today wasn’t the best racing weather by that point. We had been holding race pace fairly consistently up to that point down out of Hopkinton and into the flats of Ashland and Natick. I didn’t feel horrible, but I didn’t feel great either.

I was worried about spending too much and getting caught at the end. My effort level was good, but a little high. My heart rate was good. But I weirdly felt like I was burning energy faster than normal. I could feel the energy I was expending fighting the storm.

Our ability to draft had been minimalized. With the gusting wind and driving rain runners were having trouble staying in their lanes. Even if you could get on someone’s shoulder that just meant you were in the wettest part of the road. The runners you were trying to draft stuck to the dry crown of the road and in order to get into their shadow you had to run in the water filled wheel paths.

Even a veteran like me, who knows the course, couldn’t make good tangent decisions as runners weaved and wobbled in the storm. My watch says I ran an extra ¼ mile.

People were running in all kinds of rain gear in an attempt to stay the effect of the tempest. Shoes wrapped in bags tied at the ankles, runners clutching space blanket fragments, trash bags, ponchos and even shower caps that they had stolen from their hotels. All bets were off.

I wanted to slow down and drop off of race pace to conserve energy I knew a forced break was a good psychological way of doing this. Anyone who has raced with me knows that I will keep repeating things like “we have to back it off” but for some reason struggle to put this sentiment into execution. A potty break would be a good reset.

Once we had the race monkey off our backs Eric and I settled into a reasonable pace and looked up ahead to anticipate the girls and the hills. I wasn’t feeling great but it wasn’t critical. I didn’t really know if I needed to be drinking more or how nutrition should work in this weather. I told Eric it was now a fun run and he said “Anything under four hours is good”.

We ran on through Natick and Framingham. Eric turned to me and asked, was that the ½? I said I think it was. They hadn’t put up the arch that has been there in recent years due to the wind and we almost missed it.

Eric kept marveling at the spectators. He kept repeating ‘these people are the real story’. He was amazed that they were still out in force lining the course and cheering.

The spectators at Boston take it as seriously as the runners. If I could turn my head in the final miles I would see the incongruent, multi-colored sea of umbrellas lining the. route The spectators at Boston are not spectators, they are partners, or rather part owners, with the athletes.

Coming down the hill out of Hopkinton there were a couple of kids in bathing suits frolicking in a front yard. One guy was wearing a mask and snorkel. There are countless stories of spectators tying shoes and helping runners with food and nutrition when the athletes hands were too cold to work anymore.

One out of town runner, in a fit of hypothermia went to the crowd looking for a spare rain poncho and got the nice LL Bean rain coat freely off a mans back so he could finish the race. In some ways it reminded me of 2013 when the people of Boston came together to help each other overcome adversity.

It’s been five years but our spirit is still Boston Strong.

We ran on through to Wellesley staying on a good pace but trying to recover enough for the hills. Other years you can hear the girls at Wellesley College screaming from a mile away. This year the hard rain damped the sound until we were almost on top pf them.

They were out there. They were hanging over their fence imploring the shivering runners with kisses and high-fives. Eric and I ran through smiling as always. Even though my energy was low I drifted over and slapped as many wet hands as I could.

…

Coming into mile 15 some combination of our slower pace and the increasing ferocity of the storm started to get the better of me. I could feel my core temperature dropping. I was working but I couldn’t keep up.

How did this happen? How could someone with my experience get it wrong? Why was this different from any other cold rain run?

It was, in a sense, the perfect storm. The perfect combination of physics, fluid dynamics and temperature conspired to create a near perfect heat sink for the runners. The wind, on its own, was just a strong wind. The rain on its own was just a hard rain. The temperature on its own was just another spring day. But the combination pulled heat out of your body faster than you could make more.

The volume of rain driven by the winds penetrated through my hat and washed the heat from my head. The same cold rain drove through the three layers of my shirts and washed the heat from my core. My gloves filled with cold water and my hands went numb. When I made a fist water would pour out like squeezing a wet sponge.

The rain and wind was constant but would also come in big waves. We’d be running along and a surge in the storm would knock us sideways or backwards like being surprised by a maniac with a water cannon. I would stumble and lean into it and mutter “Holy shit storm!” or “Holy Cow Bells!” Really just to recognize and put words on the abuse.

The wind was directly in our faces. The rain was directly in our faces. The whole time. We never got out of it. There would be lulls but then it would return with one of those smack-you-in-the-face hose downs. My shoulder and back muscles were sore from leaning into it.

I was having difficulty drinking from my bottle because I couldn’t squeeze my hand hard enough. I resorted to holding it between two hands and pushing together between them. People reported not having the hand strength to take their nutrition or even pull their shorts up after a potty stop.

I was starting to go hypothermic and my mind searched for a plan. Eric knew I was struggling.

I started scanning the road for discarded gear I could use. The entire length of the course was strewn with gear. I saw expensive gloves and hats and coats of all descriptions. We passed by an expensive fuel belt at one point that someone had given up on. Eric knew I was suffering and I told him I was going to grab a discarded poncho if I could find one.

As if on cue a crumpled orange poncho came into view on the sidewalk to our left and I stopped to retrieve it. Eric helped me wriggle into it. It was rather tight, and that was a good thing. It was probably a woman’s. It clung tightly to my torso and had a small hood that captured my head and hat without much luffing in the wind.

It's at this point that Eric says I was a new man. I may not have been a new man but the poncho trapped enough heat to reverse the hypothermia and we got back to work. By now we were running down into Newton Lower Falls and looking up, over the highway at the Hills.

Eric said, “We’re not walking the hills.”

I said, “OK” and we were all business.

We slowed down but we kept moving through the first hill. I focused not on running but on falling. Falling forward and catching myself with my feet. Hips forward. Lift and place the foot. Not running just falling.

The hood of the poncho was narrow. I had an enforced tunnel vision, but it was somehow comforting, like a blinders on a race horse. I could see Eric’s blue shoes appear now and then on my right, or on my left. I settled into my own, little, six-inch oval of reality and worked through the hills.

Other runners would cross my field of vision and I’d bump through them. I was in the groove. I don’t know why but people’s pacing was all over the place during the race. It might have been the wind or the hypothermia addled brains but they were weaving all over the road. I had to slam on my brakes for random stoppages the entire race.

Eventually I just ran through them as best I could. I didn’t have the energy to stop. This kind of behavior is unusual at Boston in the seeded corrals, but the whole day was unusual. I think the relative chaos of the start may have had something to do with it.

When we got to the corrals they had ceased worrying about protocol and were just waving runners through. If you wanted to bandit Boston this year or cheat, Monday would have been the day to do it. But you also might have died in the process, so there’s that.

We got through the chutes and over the start mats without any formal starting ceremony. The flood gates were open, so to speak. Because of this I think the pacing was a bit strange at the start and we passed a lot of people.

I was racing and Eric was doing his best to hold me back. We chewed through the downhill section of the course with gusto. Given the conditions we were probably too fast, but not suicidal. Both of us have run Boston enough times to be smart every once in a while. We were holding a qualifying pace fairly well and trying to draft where we could. Eric had to pull off and have someone tie his shoe but I stayed in my lane and he caught up.

We rolled through the storm this way until I realized this was not a day to race and we had to conserve our energy if we wanted to finish. We metered our efforts and this budgeting process culminated in the voluntary pit stop at mile 9.

…

In Newton between the hills we’d focus on pulling back and recovering enough for the next one. Eric had a friend volunteering at mile 19 who we stopped to say ‘hi’ to. We were slow but we were moving forward. We reached a point of stasis.

Every now and then Eric would pull out his video camera and try to capture the moment. I was thinking sarcastically to myself how wonderful it would be to have video of my tired, wet self hunched inside the poncho like a soggy Quasimodo.

I had brought a bottle of a new electrolyte drink called F2C with me. It was ok but because of the cold I wasn’t drinking much. I knew my hands couldn’t get to the Endurolytes in my shorts pocket. I had enough sense to worry about keeping the cramps away. I managed to choke down a few of the Cliff Gels they had on the course just to get some calories, and hopefully some electrolytes.

Eric and I continued to drive through the hills. I miss-counted and thought we’d missed HeartBreak in the Bedlam. With the thinner crowds I could see the contours of the course and knew we had one more big one before the ride down into Boston.

We successfully navigated through the rain up Heartbreak and Eric made a joke about there being no inspirational chalk drawings on the road this year. Eric was happy. He had wrecked himself on the hills in previous races and my slow, steady progress had helped him meter himself. With those ultra-marathon trained legs he was now ready to celebrate and took off down the hill.

I tried my best to stay with him but the hamstring pull in my left leg constrained my leg extension and it hurt a bit. I was happy to jog it in but he still had juice. I told him to run his race, I’d be ok, secretly wishing he’d go so I could take some walk breaks without a witness, but he refused. He said “We started this together and we’re going to finish together.”

OK Buddy, but I’m not running any faster. I watched his tall yellow frame pull ahead a few meters though the last 10K, but he would always pull up and wait for me to grind on through. And so we ground out against the storm and into the rain and wind blasts through the final miles.

In my mind I never once thought, “This is terrible!” or “This bad weather is ruining my race!” All I was thinking is how great it was to get to be a part of something so epic that we would be talking about for years to come. The glory points we notched for running this one, for surviving it and for doing decently well considering – that far outweighed any whining about the weather.

This type of thing brings out the best in people. It brought out the grit in me and the other finishers. It brought out the challenges for those 2700 or so people who were forced to seek medical treatment. That’s about 10% of those who started.

It brought out the best in Desi Linden who gutted out a 2:39 to be the first American winner 33 years. In fact it brought out the best in the next 5 female finishers, all of whom were relative unkowns. The top 7 women were 6 Americans and one 41 year old Canadian who came in 3rd. No East Africans to be seen.

The day brought out the best in Yuki Kawauchi from Japan who ground past Kenyan champ Geoffrey Kirui in the final miles.

It was an epic day for epic athletes and I am glad to have been a part of it. I am grateful that this sport continues to surprise me and teach me and humble me. I am full of gratitude to be part of this race that pushes us so hard to be better athletes, to earn the right to join our heroes on this course. I am humbled to have friends in this community, like Eric, who can be my wing men (and wing-ladies) when the storms come.

I am thankful for that day in 1997 when a high school buddy said, “Hey, why don’t we run the marathon?” Those 524 miles of Boston over the last 20 years hold a lot of memories. This race has changed me for the better and I’m thankful for the opportunity.

Looks like spring is finally arriving up here in New England. I was out in the woods this week doing a little, slow trail running with Buddy the Very Old Wonder Dog. You can feel nature getting ready to explode. Buddy is getting pretty slow, but I wait for him to catch up and he does ok. He even breaks into a run every once in a while.

It hasn’t greened up yet, but it will towards the end of this month. The ground is wet, and the snow is mostly gone. But even the mud smells fecund in its dormancy. There are a lot of trees and branches down. From all the nor’easters we had. I might go for a walk with my old dog today and bring my axe to clear some of the dead fall out of the trail.

My wife is always telling me I shouldn’t drive around with an axe. I’m not sure I understand the safety concern. I was sharpening my axe last week and wondered how many people in the world still know how to sharpen and axe? Such an ancient thing. We humans have been rubbing stones against metal for a few thousand years.

Yes, the dog is still alive, I’m still alive and the woods are coming alive.

Today we have a great story for you. I talk with Stephanie who decided to become a runner the day the bombs went off in Boston 5 years ago. From the emotional beginning, she’ll be running her first qualified Boston this year, on that anniversary. Compelling stuff.

In section one I’ll talk about active tapers. In section two I’ll talk about hope and emotional intent.

Yes, I’m a little bit more than a week out from running my 20th Boston Marathon. If you want to follow me my number is 18051. Solidly in the midpack with a 3:33 qualification time. It looks like we are going to get good running weather. 50’s and overcast. This may be a good year. But you never know in New England.

I’m in my taper. This week still has a few quality workouts in it but next week I’m sure we’ll be shutting it down. My weight is good. My fitness is good. I’ve got a little pirifomis pain but I’m working through it. All in all I guess I don’t have any excuses!

…

Racing is like life. You have to find that knife’s edge between too little and too much. Too fast and too slow. It’s a balancing act.

Picture yourself walking along that mountain ridge. It drops off into the depths precipitously on both sides. But we have trained. We know how to walk the edge with confidence and aplomb.

On with the show!

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

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The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Hi everyone!! Here is my introductory story – the video thing is not so much my forte’!

Grab a sammich and sit back…it’s a little long, but I think worth the read! :)

We all have a story about where we were the day the bombs went off…This is the day I became a runner…

I grew up watching the race, the Red Sox, the Bruins, and doing so many things the great city of Boston has to offer. Five years ago, my husband and I moved to Las Vegas. On Patriots Day 2013, I was in my living room watching the race on TV. When it was finished, I turned it off, and shortly after that got a phone call from my mom, in tears, yelling at me to turn the TV back on, that “something really bad had happened”. And there it was…the news unfolding…my brother was running the marathon that day and his wife and my dad were near the finish line waiting for him. With phone lines down, it took some time to connect with his wife and my dad – oddly, Facebook messenger was operating and this became our life line. It would then be a couple of hours before we got word that my brother was ok….

Having just recently moved and retired, I was looking for some change in my life that would be healthy, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted or needed to do. I was overweight and sedentary. Most everything took so much effort. Everything about the bombings though felt personal. MY city had been attacked and for a few hours, I wasn’t sure if I had lost half of my family. As I watched the world wrap its arms around Boston, I also watched the running community and how they responded. I wanted to be part of that - I was all in! I was going to be a runner!

My brother helped me get started and we talked daily about what happened and the continued news reports…I bought a pair of running shoes. Set a start date. Set a goal – get to the end of the street and back – 1 mile. I was able to “jog” about 20 feet before I had to stop and say, “What the hell????” “This is SO hard!!”. It only made me want it more…

My brother instructed me to find a 5k event to keep me working toward goals. I did and six months later, I crushed it with a time of 40:53!! Hahaha!! I slept the rest of the day - BUT, I knew I wanted to get better and faster. I found a local running club and then my brother suggested signing up for the BAA 2014 Distance Medley. I was going to be back home for marathon weekend anyway – no way I would miss it! So, the 5k was no problem (although still a huge distance for me at the time). I figured I had enough time to train for a 10k, but that half marathon?? Holy hell…I didn’t know if I could do that. Marathon weekend and the first race for the Distance Medley came.

The city was on fire with an energy I can’t begin to describe! I am forever grateful to have been able to be part of that weekend. I ran the 10k with my brother and my dad, at my dad’s pace. He had been so affected by everything the previous year, that this meant everything to him. I had been training with my running club coach and was able to complete my very first half marathon as part of the Distance Medley, in Boston, the city I love so much. My finish time was 2:41:32. I vowed I would never do another one – the training, the anxiety, the effort – it felt impossible…

And those are the things that propelled me forward to want to do better at half marathons. I spent the next couple of years being 100% driven toward better running, faster times, and overall fitness. I lost 90 lbs. I brought my 2:41 half time down to a 1:48. Then I had a conversation with my coach…the 5th year anniversary of the bombings, the thing that started me running was coming up in 2018. I would be turning 50 the week before that race. I decided that I wanted to run Boston to bring my running journey full circle. I thought being a charity runner would be a good idea to make this happen. He stated that in no way was I going to run charity (although we both support charity running 100%). I was going to qualify. I had all the right things inside me, driven by determination and Boston to make it happen.

I had no desire to run multiple marathons to try to BQ and get to Boston. It would mean the most to me to run April 2018, and if I got in, it was meant to be. If not, it wasn’t. I wasn’t going to be a multiple marathon runner. So, the training began and I did everything that was within my power to make it successful – nutrition, training plan, cross training, strength training, reading multiple books about mental focus & motivation – all of it.

May 29, 2017, I stepped up to the start line of Mountains 2 Beach Marathon. I was ready. I was hungry for it. And I got it! Although I was shooting for a 10 min window & hoping at worst a 5 min window. I came in at 3:56:31, with around 3:30 to spare. Although this isn’t a guarantee, it was enough to keep me somewhat confident, until registration time. I kept with my belief that of it was meant to happen, it would. And it did…I made it in by 6 seconds! Wooosh!

After basking in the glory, the butterflies, and flip flopping stomach, I was going to be running Boston! I was ecstatic!! Then, it was time for training to begin. My coach of four years, the only way I have known running and the coach I trusted to guide me, unfortunately made inappropriate sexual advances toward me. My husband and I fired him on the spot.

But then I was panicked…What do I do? How do I train? How does this all work? I have an amazing support system of running friends that worked me through the grief & loss of my coach and helped get me get invested in a training plan to keep me on track. I have been following Hal Higdon’s Boston plan, with lots of success. I don’t have a time goal. My goal is to simply take it ALL in. Just to enjoy the entire experience, the crowds, the energy – and everything that got me to this point. I have two injuries slowing me down – residual pain from two hammy tears and now a bone bruise in my heel, but NOTHING will keep me from that start line in Hopkinton!

In just under four weeks, I will be running a race I NEVER thought possible when I first started running. I will be bringing my running journey full circle, as I bring it back to Boston, to run the race that started it all for me. I will be turning 50 a week before the race. I will be bringing closure to an event that changed my life completely and fully. And I will be doing it all with amazing friends and my incredible husband who has supported every step of this journey (and just ran his first 5k!!!).

Outro

Alright my friends you have hoped yourself – with good intent – through to the end of episode 4-384 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Next time we talk will be post marathon. Should have something interesting to say. We’ll see. Boston is always an adventure. Then I have to throw myself into ultra training for the Burning River 100 in July.

I’ve been watching my way through a couple good shows on Netflix. The first one, I think I told you about is Altered Carbon. This is a hard scifi series based on a very good hard scifi novel.

I would recommend reading the novel before you watch the series though. The show sticks very closely to the novel’s narrative but in doing so it becomes a bit of an insider game. If you don’t know the backstory of the universe you might think it is some sort of soft porn snuff movie.

The universe’s conceit is that humans have discovered alien technology whereby you can put yourself on a chip. Which means you can be reanimated in any body or ‘sleeve’ and few people suffer ‘real death’. Leads to some tricky cultural problems when people can live forever.

I’m starting the second novel in the series as we speak.

Another one I’ve been working my way through is Peaky Blinders. Which is about a gang in Birmingham after the great war. It’s very well done. It’s a bit like Boardwalk Empire. The characters are compelling.

It occurs to me that it is the embodiment of a Clockwork Orange set in the roaring 1920’s.

(If you don’t get reference google it. The Stanley Kubrik rendition of this Anthony Burgess novel in 1971 was quite the cult classic – you owe it to yourself to watch it. You’ll never listen to Beethoven’s 9h the same way again.)

This is another one where if you have a weak stomach for the vinni-vin-vino or the ultra-violence you might want to stay away. I myself was having dreams of murder last night.

I’ll give you a running related slice of content recommendation as well. As part of the marathon run up this year the BAA is putting out a podcast. So far, they have interviewed Boston winners Jack Fultz, Bill Rodgers and Sarah Mae Berman, and also our friend Dave McGillivray.

Sara Mae won the race before women were official. Great to remember, with all the dynamics of women in society today and current trials and tribulations, it wasn’t that long ago that the maximum allowable distance for women to compete at was 200 meters. Seems absurd today, but that didn’t change until the 70’s. Worth a listen. Very inspirational.

These women changed the world, like Stephanie is changing the world, like we all can change the world by filling that moment between stimulus and response with our intent.

First let me apologize for not being consistent with episode production these last 7 months. I was in a role that was very taxing on my time an energy. My basic schedule was to roll out of bed at 4:30 or 5:00 AM, grab my stuff, drive to the train station, get on the train, get to the gym, hit my workouts, get cleaned up, work until 7:00 at night, get back on the train to be home after 8:00, eat something and go to bed. Rinse and repeat.

In all of this I had no real office or place to write or record or interview. This left me with the weekends, which after spending all week in the mix-master of work I kinda needed the time off to recharge enough to get through the next week.

Through all this I kept my training up for the marathon but just about everything else got kicked to the curb. I had some memorable hard workouts down by the Charles River in the early morning. I learned a lot about the city.

I really missed the writing and being able to talk to you folks about endurance sports with the quality and fidelity of a measured mind.

Good news for the podcast is that I’m done with that gig and for the near future able to refocus on getting my mind and body straight for the Boston Marathon.

Today I’ve got an interview I recorded with one of my old friends and running buddies Ted. We talk about stepping up to a 100-mile distance and what it is going to take.

In section one I penned a soliloquy on running my 20th Boston Marathon and in section two I’ll talk about the power of gratitude.

Since we last talked I’ve been in the dark place with my training. Lots of hard, hard workouts in lots of bad weather up here in New England. As of today, we’ve had 4 major storms in the month of March. I’ve run in all of them and moved all the snow they’ve brought.

I’ll give you a funny, or pitiful, depending on your view point, story. Last week I had a pretty big workout on the calendar for Tuesday. It was an hour and forty-five-minute fartlek run. Looking at the weather I could see that it was going to snow all day Tuesday bringing high winds and 2+ feet of snow.

So I sent a note to coach. “Can we move this workout?” I asked.

“You’re 5 weeks out from Boston.” He returned. “This is an important week.”

And I thought maybe I could do it on the treadmill at the office. But, the Governor declared a state of something and told everyone to stay home and stay out of the city. So I couldn’t get to the treadmill.

I set the alarm early to see if I could get out before the storm got too bad. When the alarm went off I could see the wet snow being driven sideways at the window and hear the wind gusts. That wasn’t happening.

I worked from the home office all day with one eye out the window to see if the storm might not relent. The snow kept piling up.

5:00 pm rolled around and I knew it was now or never. I was going to lose daylight. I strapped on some flashy lights for visibility and geared up. I pulled out my trail shoes for traction.

My neighborhood is a cul de sac with a 1 km loop. I was not venturing out of the cul de sac. The snow was coming down hard and about 6 inches deep on the road. I had pretty good traction because it had started as wet snow and there was a couple inches of slush at the bottom that my trail shoes could hook into.

I warmed up for 10 minutes and then timed out a 2-3 minute stretch that was slightly uphill and maybe a 1/3 of the loop. Each loop I’d accelerate into this stretch and bring my heart rate up, focusing on form and turnover.

By this time the storm was starting move off. The plows came out and I danced with them on the road. The neighbors came out with their snow blowers and shovels and tractors. I startled more than one coming out of the mist wet and churning forward in the mush.

I finished up with over 12 miles, 15 little fartleks and probably 20 laps of the neighborhood – I’m sure much to the amusement of my neighbors. That was a hard workout. Then I changed into my snow moving gear and moved snow for another 3 hours.

So that’s life. When life gives you blizzards, give back fartleks and have fun doing it.

On with the show.

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Ted MacMahon

Ted MacMahon is a lifelong endurance athlete, having competed in 50+ marathons (20+ Boston Marathons), 10+ Ironmans, and 10+ ultramarathons. He often says, “Having raced in a bunch of races only means that I’ve made more mistakes than most and am happy to help others avoid my pitfalls.” In the past year, Ted won his division in the US National Championships in both the trail marathon and 100-mile trail distances. Native to Massachusetts, Ted and his wife Pamela now reside in Flagstaff, AZ. Ted can be reached at ted.macmahon@gmail.com.

Finding the right “stuff” can be a lengthy and complicated process. Here are Ted’s go to products:

Outro

OK my friends, after much patience and fortitude on your part we have made it to the end of episode 4-383. Congratulations. You’ve got a lot of spunk for a skinny little endurance athlete.

You know what I’m drinking right now? Bouillon. Yup. I needed something warm on this cold afternoon as I sit at my desk and write love letters to the ether.

Too late for coffee. To be honest, since my January 30 days of clean eating I can’t drink more than one cup of coffee a day. Rachel detoxed me from the caffeine habit. I do drink tea but all we have in the house is a choice between super caffeinated morning teas and god-awful sickly sweet fruity teas that my girls drink. I swear it’s like soaking potpourri in cheap perfume.

Bouillon hits the spot. Lots of nice salt for my sweaty soul. Less than 10 calories. Maybe a pinch of fat in there. Very nice broth. Very sustaining.

Just about 3 weeks out from Boston now. I’m in a down week. I don’t know what coach has in store for next week. We have time for one more volume week if he feels I’m up for it. I’ve struggled with a lot of leg fatigue this cycle. He may just put me into a 3-week taper. We’ll see.

I’m ready. I’ve done the work. The times I’m running on tired legs would be good enough for a BQ. With a decent taper, some reasonable weather and a little luck I could bring home a good race this year.

As taxing as this past training cycle has been I’ve quite enjoyed it. In the sense that I’m proud of having done it. I’m grateful every day for the ability to do it.

When I’ve been running down by the Charles in the morning I get to see all the other athletes. It’s not just me out there in the 10-degree weather with the ice and snow and wind. There’s a pack of us. Young and old.

This close to Boston or any other spring race I see a fair number of athletes doing tempo work. It wouldn’t be obvious to the casual observer but I see them stealing peeks at their watches and pushing their form. There are some beautiful athletes out there in the morning. Lot’s of unicorn gear.

I’m happy that they let an old guy like me join in their unicorn games.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, how pretty you are or how good you are. The trail and the morning are both equal opportunity employers. Get out there and get yours.

Hello. This is Chris. Today we have an excellent interview with Dave McGillivray about his recent experience of running 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days. We go off script a bit and do a bit of old-guy trash talking too.

I was originally going to skip this week because I’ve been so beat up by work and training recently. But, when I spoke to Dave and heard how great the conversation was I had to get it out.

In section one I’ll talk about how struggling through bad workouts isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In Section two I’ll drop a chapter from the audio book version of my Marathon BQ book called “The Dark Place”.

That’s the theme for this week I guess, struggle and perseverance. Stick to the plan.

As of today, we are 50 or so days out from Boston. My training, although challenging, is, in the grand scheme, going well.

Coming into this weekend I saw that the weather was going to be heavy freezing rain on Sunday and petitioned coach to move my long run to Saturday. He acquiesced and I did a nice sunny run with my buddies yesterday. They ended up running about 2:15 and I went a little longer and hit 2:45. It ended up around 19 and ½ miles for me.

Having run the same 2:45 last weekend on Sunday, that means the two long runs fell into the same 7-day week and I ended up with over 60 miles for the week. That’s something I haven’t seen for awhile.

My legs are holding up ok. I went back out today with some other guys from my club and we did an easy hour in the trails in the freezing rain. No issues. I do need to work more core strength and stretching in because I’m tight, but, hey you can’t do everything.

My tempo runs are coming in around a 7:30 pace which is encouraging. My engine is very strong. My heart is solid. The legs are the constraint right now. I imagine that should improve with all this volume. Bottom line I’m in a good spot for a strong 20th Boston Marathon if we get good weather.

…

It’s funny, I wrote that Marathon BQ book a couple years ago because it insisted on getting out of my head. If you were to train with me these are the kind of stories you’d hear over and over. I started the podcast for the same reason, to take all this stuff about running I’d accumulated and get it out into the public where it might do some good.

The book, putts along at a dozen or so a month, spiking in the spring and fall when people tend to think about qualifying! I suppose I should make some effort to find a real publisher given the staying power and what they call “irrational enthusiasm” people have around the topic. I’m too busy. If you know an enthusiastic publisher who wants a market tested vehicle I’ll take the meeting.

But, what really turns me on, what really makes me think ‘huh’, is when I get these emails out of the blue that thank me for it. It really blows me away. I’ll share one here. Redacted, because I don’t have permission.

Chris,

I know that you receive countless "thank you" emails from runners who have found success using your Marathon BQ training plan.... but I wanted to offer yet another.

Last year, I ran the Chicago Marathon - giving it all that I had - finishing in 3:44:24....essentially the same time that finished at the Disney Marathon several years prior.

In one year, using your program, I dropped 23 minutes off of my time, finishing the 2018 Houston Marathon strong in 3:21:04.

My goal was to qualify for Boston....and with a BQ cutoff of 3:25 for my age (46) group, it looks like I will get a bib.

All of those speed workouts really worked!

Looking forward to running Boston in 2019.

Can't thank you enough!

Sincere yours,

Redacted

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Dave race director, philanthropist, author and athlete

Dave McGillivray is a U.S.-based. In 1978, he ran across the U.S. to benefit the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.[1] Presently he is race director of the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) Boston Marathon and his team at DMSE Sports, Inc. have organized well over 1,000 mass-participatory endurance events since he founded it in 1981.This was taken toward the end of headlands 100 in sept.

In 1978, McGillivray ran across the U.S. from Medford, Oregon to his hometown of Medford, Massachusetts, a distance of 3,452 miles, ending in Fenway Park in Boston. His effort raised funds for the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.[2] Two years later, he ran the East Coast Run to benefit the Jimmy Fund, running 1,520 miles from Winter Haven, Florida to Boston, Massachusetts joined by Robert Hall, a pioneer of wheelchair marathoning, raising money for the Jimmy Fund and meeting with President Jimmy Carter at the White House during the run. In 1982, McGillivray ran the Boston Marathon in 3:14 while blindfolded and being escorted by two guides to raise $10,000 for the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass.[3] He competed in eight Gatorade Ironman Triathlons from 1980 to 1989, an individual endurance event consisting of three back-to-back distance events: a 2.4 mile rough, open ocean water swim, followed by a 112-mile bike race and finishing up with a 26.2-mile marathon run.

In 1981, McGillivray ran in the Empire State Building Run Up, an 86-story, 1,575-step run, placing 10th with a time of 13 minutes, 27 seconds. The same year he participated in the annual New England Run where he triathloned (ran, cycled, and swam) 1,522 miles throughout the six New England states raising $55,000 for the Jimmy Fund. The event required a run up and down Mount Washington and swimming two miles across Lake Winneapesaukee, both in New Hampshire, as well as swimming one mile from Woods Hole in Cape Cod towards Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, ending the course with running three miles alongside inmates within the Walpole State Prison and raising $55,000 for the Jimmy Fund.[4] A year later he swam more than seven miles in the Martha's Vineyard Swim, from Martha's Vineyard to Falmouth, Massachusetts, raising funds for the Jimmy Fund and was greeted on the shore by runners such as Alberto Salazar.

In 1986, he formed the first sanctioned running club inside a maximum security institution at Walpole State Prison in Massachusetts. He conducted and ran in numerous distance races inside the prison yard, including completing and winning a full 26.2 mile marathon against inmates.[5]

In 1980, he ran in the Wrentham State School 24-Hour Run, traversing 120 miles in 24 hours throughout 31 cities in southeastern Massachusetts, ending in Foxboro Stadium during the half-time of a New England Patriots football game. Held to benefit the Wrentham State School for the Mentally Retarded, the run raised more than $10,000 for the handicapped.

In 1983, he participated in the Jimmy Fund 24-Hour Swim, swimming for 24 consecutive hours in the Olympic-size Medford High School pool, which totaled 1,884 lengths and covering 26.2 miles (distance of the Boston Marathon), again raising funds for the Jimmy Fund. Also in 1983, McGillivray took part in the Merrimack College New England Bike Ride where he cycled more than 1,000 miles throughout six New England states in 14 days to raise money for a scholarship fund for his alma mater, Merrimack College. In 1986, McGillivray biked again for 24 consecutive hours around a five-mile loop course in Medford, Massachusetts while simultaneously directing the annual Bay State Triathlon being held on the course at the same time. He covered a total of 385 miles, again raising money for the Jimmy Fund.[2]

In 2004, McGillivray and other marathon runners ran across the U.S. following the same path he took in 1978, raising $300,000 for five charities benefiting children. Each year McGillivray runs his birthday age in miles, a tradition he started when he was 12 and realized that running was his passion. McGillivray has also run the Boston Marathon each year since 1973; the first 16 years as an entrant and since working with the race as its director, has run the course after his duties are completed.[6] In 2006, McGillivray wrote “The Last Pick”[1] with writer Linda Glass Fechter, chronicling his childhood as the last pick for team sports because of his small stature, telling readers never to underestimate their own ability to set and achieve goals. The book also covers his life as an athlete and race director.

Outro

Ok my friends you have run 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents with 7 brides for 7 brothers to the end of another RunRunLive Podcast. Episode 4-382 finito.

I’m going to keep it quick.

Things are weird for me personally, professionally and athletically but I’m keeping my head above water. I do feel a bit burnt out. And I think I need to maybe take a couple mental health days in the next few weeks. It comes and goes.

When things get hard I try to remember to be grateful. How lucky am I to have all the things I have in my life? It’s a bounty.

What you will find is that the more you practice gratitude, the more of a self-fulfilling prophecy it becomes.

I would love to hear what you are grateful for. Send me some audio and I’ll put together a composition for us.

Hey folks, how is everybody doing? I am doing fine, thank you for asking.

Here we are in February. Are you watching the winter Olympics? Aren’t they exciting with all those fun winter sports? I

Particularly like the snow-man building. I think the Czechs have a real shot at gold there.

With the Russians banned for doping that leaves the snow-fort-building and snowball-fight category wide open? Who can forget Dimitri Puschov’s overhand ice ball of 88 in Calgary?

I don’t think anyone can unseat the French in competitive pairs snow-angels. They just got that je ne sais quios.

Been a long couple weeks. Started out well with the Derry 16 miler after we last spoke. I ran it as a surge workout and felt fantastic. Finished in almost exactly 2:15. People were a bit startled to see me laying in those 3 minute surges during the race. I’d blow by people like they were nailed down then pull up and settle back into a easy run.

Like I said, I felt great. Finished with a good kick and wasn’t at all sore afterwards. That was at the end of a pretty big build week. Then coach threw me into another build week with two long surge runs. I did them before work down by the river. One in a snow storm and one 10 degrees. Nothing like an 1:30 surge run in a snow storm before work to make your cheeks rosy.

This week I had a bit of a down week. Coach gave me speed work. I had a bad day Tuesday and had to walk away from a 7 X 1600 workout on the treadmill. I was trying to do it after work and I was just mentally and physically exhausted. I rarely give up on workouts but I just could will myself to execute.

But it was ok because it forced me to reevaluate my expectations of myself. I’ve got to come to grips with not being able to do the paces I used to and just execute the workouts to the best of my ability. I’m putting too much pressure on myself to live up to the Chris of 10 years ago. I have to put that baggage away and get out of my own head.

I did a ladder workout in the cold and dark ice of my neighborhood Thursday night. I just ran as hard as I could and didn’t worry about pace. That wasn’t so bad. I was surprised at some of the paces I hit by not paying attention to pace.

Tomorrow coach has me scheduled to do a 10K race simulation. I hate these race sims but he wants to see what I’ve got. I’m just going to go out and run it by feel and, again, not worry about pace.

I’ve got another gym story for you from last week. Actually I’ll give this one to you as a math problem and a ‘choose your own adventure’ story. I discovered something interesting. It turns out one of my daughters has underwear that looks very similar to my athletic underwear, or what they refer to as my ‘man-thongs’, or what we would have called in the 70’s a ‘jockstrap’.

So here is your math problem. If you have the choice of a) going commando in your running tights (when it’s 10 degrees out), or b) wearing your cotton briefs in the workout or c) wearing your daughter’s underwear to your workout, and if you also have the choice of going commando to work, cotton briefs to work or girls underwear to work, How many different combinations are possible (assuming you cannot repeat any of the options for work or workout) and what is the formula?

Originally, I thought this would be a factorial, but I don’t think it is because it’s 2 situations, work and workout. Therefor, unless one of you math geek corrects me I think it’s a simple square of 3. 3 X 3 = 9 different possible combinations of commando, cotton briefs and girls’ underwear.

And this is the choose your own adventure part of the story. You find yourself in a gym locker room at 6:30 in the morning. You reach into your backpack for your running clothes and find a pair of girls’ underwear instead of your athletic underwear. You have cotton briefs to wear to work. What do you do?

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Outro

Ok my friends you have worn your womens’ underwear to the end of another RunRunLive Podcast. Episode 4-381 done and done.

What’s coming up for me? Not much really. I’m sure my training will ramp up as we get into the final weeks before Boston. I used my Baystate time to upgrade my race position. The BAA accepted my Portland time but didn’t take the adjusted time, they took the original net time, which was still a qualifier but 4 minutes slower than what the race directors gave me. That was because they screwed up the course and made us run an extra ½ mile.

My Baystate time is a minute plus faster than that adjusted time, so 6 minutes faster than the time the BAA gave me from Portland. 6 Minutes in the middle of the pack at Boston is probably 3,000 runners. Might even move me up a corral.

I’m not collecting for any charity this year. It’s my 20th Boston Marathon and I’m running it for me, and for you. I’m training for it. If we get decent weather I’m racing it. I’ll do my best and respect it. We will celebrate it together. I’m humbled and grateful that this special race has become part of our lives.

Maybe I’ll run next year, maybe I won’t, but this year I’m going to run and celebrate how lucky I am.

…

My wife lost an uncle this week. We went to the wake and funeral. It was good to see her cousins and aunts and uncles. Her parents’ generation is getting to that age.

I knew this uncle from her family events. He was a kind and caring man.

Seeing his kids and the impact he had on his family by being that kind and caring man impressed on me some lessons.

You don’t have to be a superhero or save the world to make a difference in this world. You just have to care for those around you.

You don’t have to overtly do anything special to make a difference. You can make a difference just by being there, being present and caring.

Your actions, even those daily, run of the mill activities that we all take for granted, impact the lives of others.

In fact, it is those small loving and caring moments that have the most impact on the ones we love and care about.

Live your life, go through life, with the understanding that everything you do has an impact on others.

The hustle and bustle of career and stuff is not that important in the grand scheme of things. Keep it in perspective and take time to be present for the ones you love.

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-380, This is Chris your host.

It is well into January and I lied. I am going to run the Derry road race this weekend. I wasn’t going to because coach gets so made when I race instead of following my training plan, but Derry coincided with a long training run. I promised to actually run the training run on the Derry course and not race.

Today we are talking with Lori who has a wonderful, compelling story that I am grateful to be able to share with you. The audio quality of the interview was a bit poor and I had to clean up a lot of noise, so apologies for the hum and fade in places. But the story is great and should transcend the constraints of the medium.

In section one I’ll talk about overlapping different types of training plans. In section two I’ll share, with permission, a response I wrote to a listener seeking advice on presentation skills.

My training is going fine. I’m starting to build up my volume for Boston. It’s less than 3 months away so I’m sure I’ll be getting into some longer quality work in the coming weeks.

The 30 Day Diet Reboot went well. I dropped about 10 pounds and I feel much fitter. You don’t realize how much difference it makes until you get back to race weight. Eating clean just makes everything easier.

I continue to put long hours in and commute to the city. It’s difficult to find the time, and more importantly the space to write and record. I hate pushing it to the weekends because I have other stuff to do. It makes me feel rushed and less creative.

Like I said I get up early, take the train in and usually do my workout before all before 8:00 AM. As my volume starts to increase this means getting out to the Charles River path before 7:00AM – which is just when dawn is breaking. I’m doing better. I haven’t forgotten anything or put any clothes on backwards for weeks.

Friday morning I did my hill workout on the treadmill in the gym. I’m still figuring out the treadmills. I can’t figure out how to program it to do what I want so I have to manually adjust the speed and incline between reps.

It’s tricky because you have to hold down two buttons at the same time. When I was transitioning into my 3rd rep the button got stuck and went to 30% incline and wouldn’t stop. I had to jump off and reset the whole workout. That was a bit exciting. I also discovered that these treadmills decline, at least 3%, which I’ll have to play with. That might come in handy for Boston training.

Remember, this is my 20th Boston. I asked people what I should do to recognize that and one of the suggestions I liked was to design a special shirt with 20 unicorns on it. Maybe a unicorn party!

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I was listening to an author speak this week about moments. They were talking about how many of the iconic moments in our lives were created, scripted if you will, by someone. Birthday celebrations have a script of gifts and cake and candles. Graduations, weddings, funerals, all these events don’t just happen, they are, were, designed for the social impact that they have.

The author talked about the Olympic medal ceremony, how someone had to make that up. It’s essentially a little story, a vignette designed for a purpose. These vignettes create a message, a sticky emotional story that stays with us. That’s the purpose of the moment.

So, when you look at your daily lfe and the good people who share it with you what are those moments? How can you write your own scripts? How can you make the vignette of hugging your child have the import of an Olympic medal ceremony?

On with the show.

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Teaching is a rewarding experience, which I have dedicated 25 years to. I teach so that I can expose the infinite possibilities to achieve success to each child that I come in contact with. I have dedicated my life to inspiring children to help others through charitable causes, service projects, and empathy.

My relationship with running began when I was a child going through many of my own challenges. Running became an outlet that truly saved me and made me the person I am today. Born in Oklahoma, I discovered running while living in Wyoming as teen. I currently live in Alabama with my husband and three children. My interests include reading, writing, coaching Science Olympiad, playing the flute, and being active.

It has always been my mission to help others, I am currently writing a book of my experiences to encourage others to overcome their own personal obstacles. My goal is to use the challenges that I have faced to help others. If what I have been through can help one person, then that is what is truly important. My future goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I aspire to reach goals beyond what anyone thought would be possible.

Outro

Ok my friends you have worked your way from the coma of consciousness to the hard fought glory of triumph through to the end of episode 4-380 of the RunRunLive podcast. Congratulations, we did it again.

Nothing radically new for me coming up. I’ll use Derry as a training run tomorrow. I’ll keep working hard everyday to meet my life goals and I’ll keep telling stories and smiling. It’s pretty simple. I used to think life was complex and hard. But it aint. You just keep picking them up and putting them down and smile while you’re doing it. Life will take care of itself.

I think Lori’s message is a great one. We are not struggling and striving and overcoming just for ourselves. We are doing it for others. If we are doing it honestly, selflessly and with gratitude we are creating a clearing for others. We are creating a clearing in the forest of fear; of don’t and can’t – a clearing of can do and a clearing of potential and a clearing of possibility.

This is the life of abundance. The more you give the more you receive.

I’m going to keep it short. I’m a bit exhausted today. But I am grateful. Grateful for you. Grateful for the gifts I’ve been given. Grateful to have a curious and active mind. Grateful for the gift of physical capability and grateful for my choice to use it.

Like I said to Lori. Studies show that this practice of gratefulness makes the same physical changes to your brain that meditation or prayer does. Who knows, maybe my gratitude creates a positive ripple in the pond of universal consciousness.

It’s been a pleasure and a gift to talk to you today. What can you contribute? What can you be grateful for? Surely you have gifts that you can share with us?

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-379, This is Chris your host. It is the second weekend of the new year if you’re on the Gregorian Calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to upgrade the Julian Calendar. Because if your calendar is messed up all your holy days hop around and it makes it harder to aestheticize the mediaeval masses with religious chicanery.

Or something like that.

Anyhow… before I scurry down the rat hole of historical events let’s talk about the wild and wonderful world of endurance sports, or at least our little corner of it.

It’s been a busy couple weeks since we last talked. On the day before New Years, Dec 31st, I hosted my 5th Groton Marathon. Which is an made up event where whomever wants to shows up and runs whatever they want. We set up the clock so we have a real start and finish and I post the times to a website – I guess you could call it ‘pretend official’.

The curious part is the a handful of us go out and run an actual marathon through all the local towns. This year I got 4 other guys to join me. The weather did not cooperate. It was 2 degrees Fahrenheit at the start and never got out of single digits.

I ended up getting in the support vehicle at 21.3ish because I was suffering. We went out a bit fast for me and I didn’t have any legs left. We had to go a bit fast in the beginning to get the feeling back in our toes and fingers from the cold. It was miserable running weather. There was a stretch from like 19 – 21 where we turned into a head wind that was awful. The other four guys finished successfully. My friend Gary ran in with a 3:52 and the other 3 came in around 3:55.

The next morning my family and I went up to run the Hangover Classic in Salisbury. The deep freeze did not abate. It was -19 with the wind chill. I ran the 5K with Teresa and she came in 4th in her age group. Then, yes, we did, we ran over and jumped in the ocean. I was a bit worried about surviving this but the water felt warm compared to the air so it wasn’t too bad. The water in the ocean at 35-36 degrees Fahrenheit had steam coming off it like a hot tub in the single digit temps.

That same day, the 1st of the new year (according to Pope Greg) I started a 30 Day Diet Reboot with my nutrition coach Rachel. I’m off the beer and the bad food for a month. I’m logging all my food in MyFitnessPal and posting a daily blog about it on my website (RunRunLive.com) under a category called ’30 Day Diet Reboot’.

On top of that Rachel is looking over my shoulder, reading my post and commenting each day on her site - http://www.nextlevelnutrition.fitness/. What we wanted to do is to give people an actual case study of how she and I approach the combination of fitness and nutrition.

And, in today’s interview, Rachel and I talk through all this and hopefully it can help some folks sort through all the misinformation that is out there.

In section one I’m going to muse a bit on why I think I’m ready to take on a 100 mile race this year.

In Section two I’m going to disassemble the oft-quoted phrase “No Regrets!”

…

I had something happen to me this week which was a first for me in my running life. Have you ever heard the old joke that goes something like “I don’t jog because I don’t want to find a dead body!” Because for some reason those news stories always start with “…found by a jogger…”?

Well I was running down by the Charles in Boston this week. The weather warmed up to above freezing and the sun was out so I made a concerted effort to get out at lunch. Boston got over a foot of snow during the ‘cyclone-bomb’ event last weekend and the bike path was still covered in places. I had a 1:15 easy run so it wasn’t a problem to navigate around the snow.

I ran up river to one of the far bridges, crossed over and came back across the next bridge to get a sort of lollipop route of the right length. Since it had been so cold for several days in a row the full expanse of the rive was frozen over all the way down to the museum of science.

There’s one bit along Storrow drive at the Boston University Bridge where the bike path abruptly runs out of room and they route you out, under the bridge, into the river, on a wooden bridge to get around the abutment and back on the bike path up river.

Right after this the snow removal ceased and we had to navigate some lumpy foot paths for a few hundred feet. When I met another runner or pedestrian, one of us would have to give way on the snowy single path.

It was in this dicey section on the way back that the lady runner I had already passed going out started talking to me. I had my headphones in, but she said something about they were pulling a body out of the river up ahead. They were breaking it out of the ice.

Sure enough, when I went out on the wooden plank section that hugs the abutment there was a clutch of police. As I came to it I was expecting someone to stop me and I asked the one sad looking cop there if I could sneak by. He motioned that it was ok.

Not more than 20 feet from me there were four more officers of some type carrying a stretcher up the icy bank with the body. They had the top of the torso covered, but a man’s boots and snow pants stuck out from the waist down.

The State Police were interviewing a shaken looking runner. A good runner. I remember passing him and thinking ‘he’s the real deal’. Skinny, athletic and underdressed for this weather. He must have paused for some odd reason to stretch or to catch his breath between intervals or something to cause him to look over that wood railing into the river under the bridge.

I kept going. They had Storrow Drive West shut down. There must have been 15 police cars there.

That’s a first for me. Never had a CSI moment on one of my runs before.

So my friends. As you’re out and about today. You may have your head cold, or your other challenges but you’re not toes-up frozen in the Charles River. You have that going for you.

On with the Show!

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

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The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Rachel Shuck – Nutrition Coach

Rachel Shuck is a board certified nutrition coach with a passion for running and all things fitness. She currently teaches nutrition courses at the local college while pursuing her doctorate in clinical nutrition . She is certified with the International Sports Science Association and the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Association as well. Her personal journey began with running 5k’s and being at the back of the pack, to running marathons and becoming a Boston Qualifier. Along her decade long path of coaching runners she found a true passion for teaching people proper nutrition to fuel for optimal performance. Rachel’s articles and videos have been featured in Mind Body Green, Personal Growth, and the Livestrong website as well as local news shows covering health and fitness.

It’s no secret – a healthy body is a happy body. Taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do. Not only will you feel great, you will look great and inspire others to take care of themselves in the process. As a mother of two teenagers, I know how important eating right and exercising are for not just you, but the whole family. We have the power to influence the health and well-being of our loved ones and create a healthy lifestyle for future generations.

I have experience teaching nutrition classes, group exercise classes and coaching runners. I coach people on how to achieve a healthy lifestyle, which includes learning to eat right for life and developing the proper mindset to want to do that. Long term success is the ultimate goal. Hiring a coach or trainer can strengthen your health, take your athletic performance to the next level, guide you in making the correct food choices, and improve your confidence and outlook on life. As a board certified nutritional coach, I’m knowledgeable in how food affects your performance, So if you want to live a stronger and more confident life, I’ve got the training and the expertise to help you every step of the way.

Section two – No Regrets - http://runrunlive.com/no-regrets

Outro

Ok my friends you have eaten handfuls of probiotic macronutrients to the end of episode 4-379 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Coach is starting to ramp me up for the spring season. It looks like he’s going to add some back-to-back volume to my weekends in addition to my normal Boston Marathon training cycle. I’m not going to run any of the spring races with Frank and Brian. Maybe I’ll do Eastern States in March, but I’m skipping Derry.

I’m going to run my plan and focus on staying healthy. I’m not even half way into the Diet Reboot but I already feel better. I have so much more energy in my runs. I feel like someone removed a sandbag from my shoulders. I’ve got an hour on the schedule today. I think I’ll put my old trail shoes on and go muck about in the snow in the woods. Maybe I’ll take Buddy with me for a short bit. The old dog is getting cabin fever.

Next week I’m talking to a really cool guest, Lori, who is running Boston this year. She got hit by a car out running in 2016 and went from being in a coma for 5 days to running New York and Boston. I hope the audio is good enough because it’s a impactful story.

…

I’ve been working some long hours in the city. I get up at 5:00 AM and am on the road by 6:00 and in the city by 7:00. Depending on my schedule I usually hit my workout in the morning to get it done and off my plate. Which gets me into my office around 8:30. Typically I’ll work until 6:00 or 7:00 and get back to my house around 8:00. It’s a long day.

Towards the end of the week, especially this week with my head cold, I was dragging.

I had a hill workout on Friday. I haven’t quite figured out a good place to do hill workouts in the city yet so I did it on the treadmill in the gym. I was surprised how easy it felt given the head cold and how I was dragging. Again, the diet reboot is amazing for your workout energy.

Then I got showered up and put on my work clothes. This office isn’t suit and tie, but it’s business dress. I’m an executive so I try to err on the side of business. I had a full day of meetings including interviewing a candidate for a position I’m hiring to.

During the day I was noticing how baggy my underwear felt. I don’t wear anything special just your run of the mill boxer briefs. I kept thinking, there must be something going on with this pair because they just aren’t fitting right.

Towards the end of the day I realized what it was. Have you guessed? Yeah, I was so tired in the morning I put my underwear on backwards and didn’t realize it until the day was almost over. I had a good chuckle over that.

Hello, and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-378, This is your dear friend Chris. How is everything going? I’m trying very hard to get back on my publishing schedule. To get back in balance. Not just because I believe consistency is a big part of quality in the product you consume here.

I do appreciate your attention and I’m grossly aware of my duty!

I also need to keep writing to keep my own creative furnace fueled – which is why I started doing this in the first place – partly to help people, and myself, become better versions of themselves by sharing some of the tribal knowledge I’ve accumulated over the eons that I’ve been a practicing amateur endurance athlete. But also to keep my communication skills tuned up – writing as well as reading this copy to you with as much gusto as I can recruit!

Well maybe not gusto, but at least enviable sincerity.

Today we catch up with my coach, Jeff. He and I talk through the ups and downs of my 2017 training season. I like to use myself as a test subject to see what worked and what didn’t.

It’s always important to look back at your training, your successes and your failures, to see if you can learn anything. You’re never too old to learn.

We talked for a long time. I’m going to edit it down to a reasonable size, but I’ll post the raw interview on the members feed.

In Section One we will talk about over-training. How to realize when you’re getting over-trained, what the symptoms are and how to avoid it.

In Section Two I’ll tell you 10 things you don’t know about me. Like one of those Facebook posts.

It’s cold up here in New England now. We are in full on Winter. We’ve had some good snow to make everything festive. It’s below zero Fahrenheit this week.

More importantly how is Buddy the old wonder dog? Well, he just turned 14 years old. Which is pretty damn old for a border collie. He’s and old man! His hips don’t work so well and he’s deaf but he’s still mentally sharp.

He gets skinnier every day. Skinny old man. The kids dress him in sweaters this time of year. They use him as a blanket to stay warm when they’re watching TV. He is very warm. He is well loved.

He barks a lot. Just like an old man, he wants to be heard and doesn’t have time for niceties. He’ll stand in the front yard and bark at the woods at night. Picture it as a 98 year old man in his underwear yelling at the coyotes to stay off his lawn.

“…when I was a boy… we had real coyotes, not these namby pamby city coyotes they got now…”

…

I ran out of podcasts to listen to last week. I’ve been changing phones a lot and have lost some of the regular ones I used to listen to. Some house cleaning and some pruning. Podcasts come and go. It’s an industry now and the old amateurs like myself are the anomaly.

I opened the app and was looking around and went to see what Steve was doing over at Phedippidations. The app sorted with oldest first, and I downloaded a couple of his marathon race reports from 2005. The BayState Marathon and the Cape Cod Marathon.

Steve did a great job with those old podcasts. Compelling and interesting stuff. Really well produced. Entertaining. You can hear how much in love he is with his training and racing and the newness of the sport and the community.

If you listen to the Baystate race episode you’ll hear my buddy Frank calling out Steve’s name at one of the first water stops, the one with the rock music playing. That’s the same Frank who ironically qualified at Baystate with me a few weeks ago. I wasn’t at the water stop in 2005. I was running the race. I think I ran both those races and came up short in both. I think that year I ran a race in Maryland around Thanksgiving to finally get my qualification.

That was a year and a half before I started podcasting but I would have been in the process of publishing my first book of running stories, The Mid-Packer’s Lament, (which is still available on Amazon).

I love that about the podcasting thing. Being able to capture a moment of time. Being able to freeze the river of time and that person you were. It’s a slice of self-awareness. That Steve didn’t know what the future would hold. That Chris didn’t know either. In our hopeful narratives we saw that moment as a waypoint on an upward slope into the future.

I think the one important take away for me is to understand that today, this race, this fitness, this Chris is a unique thing and may very well be as good as it gets.

Think about that. How would you run your race? How would you live your life if today was as good as it gets?

Seize the day. Savor that day. Today is all you have. The past is a old movie spinning sepia images across time. The future is nobody’s business. Today is your day. Use it. Enjoy it.

On with the show.

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

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The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Coach Jeff Kline

“Coach” as he is referred to by athletes has been training runners and triathletes globally for 20 years. The Coach is the founder and designer of Daily Fit Book. Although he is fully committed to the development and growth of DFB he will take on athletes of all levels that show a commitment and a strong desire to achieve new dreams and goals.

Outro

Ok my friends you have wound down your training season to the end of 2017 and to the end of episode 4-378 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Well done.

What have we got going in the new year? Actually, big things!

I decided I needed to set myself up with a running goal that was a challenge. I signed up for the Burning River 100 in July and will chronicle my training for the race. Yeah, I know I said I’d never do it, but you hear in my conversation with coach that turning point.

Why not? I’ve done a lot of stuff in my life but I don’t have a belt buckle. And, there’s a good chance I’ll fail spectacularly either in my training or in the race itself. If so are going to set BHAGs you have to have a good chance of failure. That failure is the stuff that teaches you and forces you out of your comfort zone and forces you to grow.

So, calling all my ultra friends, I’m going to need advice, support and pacers! Here’s your chance VeganRunningMom, DirtDawg, Cooker, Leadfoot and all the others. Once in a lifetime opportunity to watch Chris Maddog Russell cry like a baby and soli himself.

In addition to this I’ll be running my 20th Boston marathon. And, yes, I am qualified. We’ll have to schedule something fun for that.

Oh, and I committed to finishing my zombie novel.

There are some personal and professional goals that you don’t care about that I’ll be chasing as well. 2018 is going to be epic! (one way or the other)

But, that’s all in the future. I’ll be wrapping up my 2017 season with the Groton Marathon. I’ve got 5 folks who said they were running with me. We’ll see who shows up because it’s going to be single-digit cold. But, you know my theory…If you do something truly stupid people will show up.

On the first of the year I’ll run the Hangover Classic with Teresa and then jump into the Atlantic Ocean, because that’s what you do, right?

And last but not least, I’m kicking off a 30 day Diet reboot on January first with my nutrition coach Rachel. I’ll be logging my food and stats and blogging about it every day. I’ll catch up with Rachel each week to review progress. I’ll probably record those weekly chats and put them up on the podcast feed. I thought it would be useful for people to hear my/our point of view on clean eating for endurance athletes.

Think that’s enough? Another one of my theories is when you have too much to do, schedule more stuff and it will sort itself out!

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I’ve been listening to a meditation podcast on the train in the morning called the Meditation Minis podcast. Episode 2 is about using meditation to clarify your vision, i.e figure out what you want to do. This is a great exercise to create goals for the new year.

She walks you into a meditative state. Then brings you into the future so that you are looking back on your life. And asks the simple question “What are three things that you wish you had done?”

I found that context very helpful to sort out the things I’m working on and what is important and what will make a difference.

Try it. Don’t put off your dreams. Put them down on paper and find a way to get them done in 2018.

Hello, and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-377, I will be Chris your host, thank you for joining me. I am speaking with you the day after US Thanksgiving. The weather has finally started to turn here and it is below freezing outside.

Teresa and I went and ran the Ayer Fire Dept 5K on Thanksgiving morning. I get to see many of my friends from the running club. One of our members, Anthony was the original race director who created the race.

I used to go up and run the Feaster 5 miler in Andover but this is so much more convenient. The Feaster gets almost 10,000 runners and a bunch of local running celebrities show up to take pictures with McGilvary. It’s a good race but Ayer is less hassle for us being the next town over.

I can’t say I had a good race. I can’t say I had a bad race either. In terms of how I felt and the pace I ran it wasn’t my best effort, given how I actually tried to train for the race and am coming off a successful marathon campaign. But, on the other hand, being out on a cold, sunny morning with my daughter and all my friends – there’s really no complaining about that!

Today, we speak with friend of the show, Alex, about his epic adventure at the Ultra-trail du Mont Blanc at the end of the summer. If you pay attention to the ultra world you may have heard of Leadville or Western States. UTMB is the Western States of Europe, if you will. It gets all the best international mountain and trail runners. It’s over 100 miles long and has an insane amount of vertical.

Alex, used to volunteer to edit the audio for the interviews on RunRunLive. Another one of those Sympatico friendships I’ve been graced with through the podcast. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Remember a couple episodes back when I gave you my new Apple sauce recipe? Well, I tried an excellent variation. I’ve started putting overripe bananas and ripe peaches in with the apples. And I’ve discovered you don’t have to peel the apples either. Just throw it all into an oven-safe dish, covered and bake it on low all day long and you get amazing, healthy apple sauce for your morning oatmeal.

In section one of this episode I’ll talk a little about how I attempted to pivot from the marathon to the 5K and in section two I’ll write about running in the city of Boston.

…

I finally got around to getting my flu shot. I try to get in each fall because I think it’s important to do my part in keeping the herd healthy. I usually don’t’ get sick since I started training regularly. A number of people I know, work with and even my wife who is usually healthy as a horse came down with this nasty chest cold this fall that seemed to last for 2-3 weeks.

I went down to the local drug store, CVS, where they give the shots on a Saturday. It wasn’t a very productive day for me. The dump was closed because of veterans’ day and I didn’t know it until I loaded up my truck and drove over there. I found it impossible to get in for a haircut two weekends in a row due to some bizarre spike in the demand for haircuts locally. But, I did manage to get the flu shot.

While I was sitting there an old man came in and joined me. It was veterans’ Day and he was wearing a WWII commemorative hat. He told me that he enlisted in 1942 at the age of 17. He was in Normandy 6 days after D-day. He was stationed in Czechoslovakia. Then he went to the Pacific theatre and was in the Philippines and Japan.

He’d be about the same age as my Dad would be if he were still alive. Local guy. Grew up in the town. Lived his life there. Still there. Getting his flu shot. Imagine the changes he’s seen?

That was a couple weeks ago. Today is thanksgiving. I find myself thankful. On with the show.

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Alex Cooke

Alex is 43 and hails from Birmingham in the UK. Like many of us, he started running in early middle age to improve his health, but quickly found benefits in multiple dimensions. He’s got a busy life, and uses running dreams to keep him motivated to train and live a bit cleaner. After [not quite] conquering the Boston marathon and falling in love with the European Alps on a family holiday, he set his sights on trail running and, specifically, the Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc - a 106 mile, 33,000 feet mountain race as his next goal. Three years after setting the goal, did the reality live up to the dream?

Outro

Excellent job my friends, you have slipped, crawled and struggled through 30 hours of the RunRunLive podcast Episode 4-377.

The intro for this podcast was written just around Thanksgiving. Now it is 2 weeks later. Apologies for the tardy publishing cadence. My new gig in the city is very intense and time consuming. I don’t have any place to record. By the time I get to the weekend I have a full slate of other activities and no time to record either – I’m also fairly wrung out intellectually.

But that’s not your problem! It’s not a problem for me either. I’ll figure it out. I have spent these few weeks well and wisely. I ran my turkey trot 5K and it was as struggle but I did ok. I got to spend some time with my friends and Teresa. It’s a nice event to kick off the day.

Last weekend I ran the 4.7 mile leg, leg 2, of the Mill Cities Relay. I ran 7:30’s as I predicted but it was hard work and I was fairly sore on Monday of this week. Basically I’m feeling the effects of a active fall racing season.

Coach wants me to start training for Boston but I kind of want to take some time off and do something different. I was looking at Comrades Marathon in June – but that’s probably outside my reach – as epic as it is. I’ll figure something out.

I’m so busy I find I’m falling into the ‘switching cost’ trap. This is what happens when you work on many important things in parallel. Every time you go from focusing on one important thing to focusing on the next important thing you pay a penalty. It takes your brain a certain period of time to transition out of the one thing and then refocus on the next.

It’s like when you’re working on a project and you are deeply focused and the phone rings. It’s important so you answer. Now you’ve lost the flow of that project.

What ends up happening eventually, as you try to string more projects in parallel, is the time spent switching and absorbing the impact of the switch begins to outweigh the value of the thing you switched to. They discovered this concept in the early computers. Eventually the entire CPU is tied up switching tasks and nothing gets done.

What do you do? Unfortunately, the answer is to work longer and try to carve out appropriately large and specific chunks of time for important tasks. You may find that the only time you can find is outside of work hours. Or, you can say no. You can identify those things that are not urgent but are important and make sure those get done. Because those are the things that will pay off over the long run.

For example, you are having to deal with customers because you don’t have enough qualified employees. What should you do? If you don’t deal with the customers, you’ll take a high profile hit for being unresponsive. But, if you don’t focus on hiring and training you will never get out of the trap.

You’ll be tempted to try to do both. Deal with customers and hire and train in the spare time. What happens? You end up being mediocre at both. As painful as it is you have to focus on the thing that will give you the long term win, not the thing standing in front of you screaming.

It comes down to knowing what you’re trying to accomplish and aligning your tradeoffs with those strategic goals.

Sounds strangely intellectual when I talk about it this way. In reality it’s the chaos of daily life.

I’m going to keep plugging along, doing the right thing, and I’ll see you out there.

Hey Folks, This is Chris. I am dropping you a quick note so that you can stop worrying about me! That’s right, you can stop checking the morges and the hospitals and the retirement homes. I’m ok, I’m just busy and as much as I’m committed to producing the podcast, it is not, and you may be shocked to hear this, my highest priority! It’s up there and I take consistency of delivery and quality seriously, but that should give you an idea of how tactically strapped I am.

Anyhow, I do have a half-written show for you coming and I will keep working on the fun scheduling and priority tetris that allows me to talk to you, but I beg for your patience. I’m also feeling that we’re in a rut and I need to change the format in the new year. It’s been a couple years so I’m willing to take suggestions for anything that you think we could do that would be useful, new and exciting in a RunRunLive Version 5.

Also A quick note – I am running my personal festival of races called “The Groton Marathon” on December 31st in West Groton Massachusetts at 9:00AM if anyone wants to come up and join. We have people show up who run all different distances at all different speeds. Myself and some veterans jog the full 26.2 in 4-5 hours and we have some cheer. Shoot me a note at cyktrussell with any thoughts, comments, questions and suggestions.

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And just for fun I’ll share a journal entry from a early morning train ride where I was trying to noodle out how to work my priorities to get everything done. It’s a bit of navel gazing and has nothing to do with running, but hey, why not?

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Scheduling for me is about priorities. On the one hand I think my priorities are good and normal. I prioritize my career, the work that puts bread on my table, my family and my health. Those are my drop dead items on my todo list. Everything else is negotiable. The challenge is when these top-of-list items crowd out the creative things; pursuits that I get a juice out of – a joie du vivre.

Career means work. It means putting in the hours. It means learning fast and acting faster. It means having a change mindset and looking around corners. It means having hard change conversations with people who’s support you need to be successful. It means all these things and more. I don’t just show up and hang off the back of the pack. I set the pace and the tone and I lead.

Career is a daily heavy lifting that starts early, ends late and burns hot the mental torch. Career is exhausting intellectually and emotionally. Sometimes in a good way. Sometimes in a long-term capacity building way that training always is.

Those are the good days when you are building roads and changing lives.

The challenging days are when the hordes pour over the wall and daylight to dusk is spent swinging swords and thrusting pilum with your back up against the sortie gate.

Could walk away from the world of business and spend my days on the farm? I think I could, but I don’t pine for it. I’m not bewitched by some retirement fantasy where everything is unicorns and rainbows and candy. That would kill me in short order.

What about Family? Family is the rock upon which my church is built. This foundation allows us to venture forth into the world with some sort of hearth secured. It gives us comfort and purpose.

This foundation, even with its human cracks and mold in the mortices gives us the confidence and strength to do battle. We know our flanks are held and solid. The baggage train is safe and we can sortie out into the world with some peace of mind.

And Health. Health for me, in this context is both physical and mental. It takes the form of training for things that challenge me. The challenge me enough to make me grow. That challenge me enough to keep me mobile and strong. That allows me the physical confidence in life.

These three areas of my life are an essential balance, but they sometimes become tactical and rote. They miss a purely creative, purely unbounded and joyous act of creation. This is when I become unbalanced. When the mind is not fed on the creative mana – that food of the goods. Underfed, the creative mind shrinks back in upon itself, meager and miserly and protecting.

And I find myself unbalanced. It’s easy to say that you are too busy. It’s easy to say that just for today you will push the plow and tomorrow you will learn or grow. But, urgency aside, it is a trap. As we all know from experience, today turns into tomorrow and tomorrow plows into next year and the years folds into a life.

And that, whether we know it or not, is a prioritization decision.

It is true that you can’t do everything. No one can. And your life will shift out of balance occasionally as you embrace change and move. But, you can be aware of balance and priority. You can do a lot.

Balance is a combination of time, place and priority. It is an outgrowth of process. You create the places and the times that support the process. Any amount of planning, (placing things in places bounded by time), creates process and process is the key to unlock a treasure chest of productivity – and creativity.

Priority is tricky. When one of your top three life areas expands to pull so much energy and time it erodes your ability to reach those life areas that are important but not urgent.

The question becomes “Is it important?”

Is it adding value to you and yours and ours?

If it is important then you will find the time in the cracks to get it done.

The fruit hangs heavy on your trees. The frost is coming. Find the time to harvest. Find the time to prune. Find the time to allow bounty.

Today we follow up on Episode 4-374 where I interviewed Jonathan about his training and attempt to cut close to 30 minutes off his marathon time to qualify for Boston. He walks us through his first attempt and what he learned from it.

It turns out that by taking the longer commuter rail train into the city I can get some writing done in the morning and in the afternoon. As an added benefit it’s about a mile walk from North Station to my office. This is a nice add of a brisk 15-20 minute city walk past Government Center, the Old North Church and Fanueil Hall to start and end my day.

I could take the subway but it’s a nasty crowded ride that would take 15 minutes anyhow.

The net result is that I have a nice, long and very special race report from the Baystate Marathon for you. It’s north of 5,000 words. I’ll see how it fits, but it’s going to take up most of this show and I’ll be brief.

My training is good. My next events are the local Thanksgiving 5K and the Mill Cities Relay. It looks like Frank, Brian and I are going to be on a team. That means I probably won’t be the guy running the 10 mile leg. I’ll get one of the shorter legs which are 5 -6 miles. Hopefully I won’t be relegated to the 2.5 mile leg.

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Yesterday was my birthday. I turned, well I turned older. I jumped an age group. I took advantage of the time change and got the 5:30 train into the city. I ran down to the river and knocked out a set of 5 X 7 minute intervals at a hard effort with 2 minute rests.

The speed work averaged around a 7 minute mile. Which is neither here nor there, as they say. I could compare that to my Marathon PR pace of 7:08’s and be sad about those slow loss of ability. I choose not to. I see it as a gift. I see just being able to breath the bright morning air into my lungs and push the morning blood through my healthy heart as a gift.

And to be able to do it at a pretty good pace and effort is a bonus. That’s a gift to me on my birthday.

I also got some attention from the people who love me, and that’s a gift, to be part of someone’s life and to know you are loved.

And I got messages from c couple hundred of you my friends on the ever-efficient Facebook. (There’s some ironic, snarky comment about robot overlords and birthdays here but I’m going to take the high road.)

You thank you, all of you for the gift of your attention, your time and the gift of somehow fitting usefully into your firmament.

On with the Show.

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

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The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

My Story: During my residency I was 241 pounds, miserable, and knew something had to be done about my health. So I started slow and short, and revisited my past love for distance running and marathons. Eventually I was turned on to Ironman and found my new love! Teaching myself to swim in the hospital pool and riding a folding bike to work each day, I applied by lottery for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. On my 39th birthday, I was selected for and ultimately finished this race…having also completed my first Ironman in Lake Placid just 10 weeks earlier. Consequently, in 2012 I was honored to be chosen for the Runner’s World photo shoot issue (video).

Training and competing - with *myself* - is my ultimate passion. It has enabled me to face and conquer life’s toughest challenges. Ironman has taught me that it doesn’t matter what you think, how you feel, or what you say in life - only what you *do*. I live this motto for my children.

Outro

Ok my friends you have trained hard a raced smart to the end of Episode 4-376 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Time to hang that medal on the rack and recover a bit.

This train into the city takes about an hour. A lot of people sleep. Supposedly there is internet access of a sort but I can never make it work. This is the express train but it’s running slower this morning. We don’t have real trains like Tokyo or London. Ours are slow and barely keeping their heads above water.

I took the early train yesterday and it’s a funny crowd. Those commuters all know each other. It’s like a family reunion of bureaucrats, slightly rumpled career office workers in comfortable shoes. They chat away like a sewing circle. Thank Steve Jobs for headphones.

Did you se Shalane won the New York City Marathon! That is amazing.

Amazing.

I have a funny story about the New York City marathon from my commuting experience. You folks may remember that I ran the NYC marathon in 2014 as a sponsored athlete with ASICS. One of the amazing things that has happened to me through RunRunLive.

I know, I still can’t believe it either. Why would anyone sponsor a journeyman marathoner like me? Well they apparently mistook ‘internet famous’ for actually famous and sponsored me. They gave me so much stuff. If you look at my current Facebook profile picture you’ll see the 3D statuette they created of me that sits on the mantle in my living room where they made me look like Will Weaton with a full head of hair.

One of my favorite stories is how I ended up on the front page of the Wall Street journal. True story.

But, I’m still working my way through all the schwag they gave me as a sponsored athlete. And since I’ve been commuting into the city I have been wearing the NYC jacket and carrying the NYC backpack for my gear.

I was on the red line train last week heading out of the city and the guy across from me says, “Man you have all the gear!”

I looked up from my book and said “What?”

“The New York City Marathon; you have all the gear.”

You see, he was running the NYC marathon that weekend, his first, and I just happened to stumble into his awareness zone. You know what I mean. It’s like when you buy a new thing and then start noticing that new thing everywhere.

So I said “Yeah, I ran it in 2014.” And we struck up a conversation. I did my best to fill him in on the overwhelming monstrosity that is the NYC Marathon.

At some point I said, “I was sponsored by Asics, because I’m internet famous, which isn’t actually famous…” (I know I tell the same jokes over and over and over) And I could see the recognition dawning in his eyes.

“RunRunLive!” he said, as both a statement and a question.

And I, proud and peacocky now stood to shake his hand.

So, Chris, if you’re out there. That was fun for me. Thanks for making my day.

And, to drag out the tired vehicle, occasionally, I do indeed ,see you out there.

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast. My name is Chris. I’ll be your host for today. And for that I am truly grateful. I guess you could say I’m your senior citizen of endurance sports.

We’ve got a lot to talk about today. “We need to talk.” – no, seriously, today’s show is going to be chock-a-block with racing and running. It is that time of year, right? This is the end of the summer training campaign where we put all the chips down and race. We take the test at the end of the term.

Sometimes we pass, sometimes we fail. Either way we learn. And then we slide into the winter solstice of our training. A celebration lap of Thanksgiving races and solstice celebrations. It is the cycle of our lives.

Along the way today, between the racing talk, there may even be some other thoughts. I can never be sure once I start writing!

In fact, the act of writing an episode is a bit like toeing the line at a race. I never know what’s actually going to happen. Until I get out there and feel the race. That’s the good part. That’s the uncertainty that keeps us moving forward.

Today we’ll have a couple of race reports probably and I try to squeeze something important out of Eric and his son Zach who ended up running Leadville together and serendipitously finishing together.

I am still quite busy in my life. I have raced twice since we last talked. And, I see many of you have raced as well. I see your smiling faces and sweat-shiny bodies sprawled exultantly in the grass of a finish line, exhausted and triumphant!

Good for you. You’ve cracked the code. You’ve sipped from the well of knowledge that is endurance sports.

Race weeks are actually less busy for me. My workouts are shorter and less intense. For me these were local races so there were fewer logistics as well. Basically I just have to lay out my kit and set the alarm.

Like I said, this is the end of my season. This is the old cadence. Train through the summer and race in the fall.

Now, whether you’ve made your goals or not, you cycle down. It can be a full-on rest. Or it can be a change of pace. But you need to cycle to refresh. You can’t balance on that edge of race fitness for too long. It’s a peak condition. A point on the curve. Now you cycle down and start, in reality, building momentum for the next cycle, the next peak.

The mistake people make is to load up a bunch of races in a row and just keep trying to execute. When I do this I settle into a sort of mediocre purgatory of performance and enjoyment. Life has rhythms. You need to breath in and breathe out the physical and mental cycles to get your most fulfillment and best performance.

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Last episode I did a pep-talk piece on why we should all stop complaining and just show up and race. I want to make sure that you understand when I do these oratory type pieces I am not focused on any specific individual. Actually, I am focused on one specific individual; me.

Yeah, that’s right when I drop into lecture or inspirational talk mode, most of the time I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to me. These pieces are a way of me sorting through my thoughts, emotions and fears. To get them down on the paper (yeah I still write with a pen in a notebook sometimes). To tease out the ‘why am I feeling this way?’ and ‘Why did I do this stupid thing?’ and ‘What can I learn from it?’

I know it feels sometimes like I’m talking about you or to you, and I am, in a way because the human comedy has the same patterns. If it resonates with you that’s great.

Any similarities to persons living or dead are purely coincidental.

On with the show.

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Take those over-ripe, over abundant apples. As many as you want. Peel them. Core them. Cut up into pieces. You can either mix in some spices before or after you cook them. Your choice. Cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon - whatever you like.

No sugar! This is where I depart from grandma’s recipe. And no butter! You can add a bit of coconut or other healthy oil if you want.

Put them in an oven safe crock or pan of some sort covered. Ignore them while they bake on low heat for a couple hours. When, some hours later, you walk by the stove and think “Crap those apples are still in there!” you can take out the crock and stir up the now applesauce. If just have to have sweetner you can add some honey.

Mix it in with your morning oatmeal. Use it as a condiment. It’s healthy and awesome.

And, since we are getting all seasonally Martha on you here’s another tip. I have been struggling with this problem ever since I bought the house I live in. There is no fan in the master bathroom. In the summer I can open a window. In the colder months I have trouble shaving because the mirror fogs up.

I can wipe it with the towel, but it just doesn’t work well. Th internet provided me with the trick. You take a little shampoo, (or anything like that), and spread it on the part of the mirror you don’t want to fog up. Then wipe it off. Now, believe or not, that section will not fog no matter how long of a post-run hot shower you indulge in.

Very helpful.

Next up for me is the Thinksgiving 5K and right after that the Mill Cities Relay with my club. And then the 6th rendition of the Groton Marathon! Looks like Frank and Brian and maybe even Ryan will be healthy enough to run with me this year – on Dec 31st.

End of the season!. I have to think of something to keep me interested. Then we get back on the next cycle for my 20th Boston Marathon. I think I’ll have a party this year.

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I have a great podcast story for you.

This last week I went to see Mike Duncan speak at the Harvard Book Store on my way home from the city one night. The smart kids in class will remember that Mike is the voice behind The History of Rome podcast.

Mike was one of the early podcasters and The History of Rome was one of the first podcasts back in 2007. Coincidently around when I started RunRunLive. Mike completed the arc of the history of Rome a few years back and has continued with a new history podcast called Revolutions which is quite good as well. The History of Rome took him around 300 episodes and is still out there in podcast land.

Those of you who have been with me on this journey for a while might remember that I interviewed Mike on the show. He made the great mistake of mentioning that his wife was a half marathoner so I had an excuse to talk history with him. (episode 160)

Tuesday night when I popped out of the train at Harvard Square and walked over to the Bookstore I was surprised to see quite a large crowd there to see Mike. Standing room only. Overflow crowd. And they had sold out his new book, The Storm before the Storm, the Beginning of the end of the Roman Republic, which he was there to speak on. {Link in the show notes}.

I was coincidently waiting for Teresa to get out of class, so I hung around with the overflow crowd, crouching in an aisle between biographies and gender studies and listened to Mikes talk over the loud speakers.

I hung around and waited out the 45 minute line of people waiting to shake his hand or get their book signed. I introduced myself to Brandi, Mike’s wife, and we chatted about running. She had just run the Marine Corps Marathon a couple days earlier. We had a great chat. I gave Mike my congrats on his successful book launch.

Talking to the people in the crowd, they weren’t necessarily there for Mike’s book, but they were there because of Mike’s podcast. The voice had touched them. The power of the voice of Mike’s podcast made them invested in Mike in a unique way.

Over the 10 years Mike has been doing the podcast, we, his audience have seen him, heard him, been with him on his journey. Starting as an unemployed history major, getting married, having two kids and now publishing a real book.

He discovered that he could do what he loved from a room with a mic in Madison WI. And make a living at it. He didn’t need to ask for permission. He just started talking about something that was interesting to him. I’m very happy for his success.

Mike also found his tribe. I saw them in Cambridge Tuesday night. Bow-tied, balding, tweed-suited history students and teachers waiting in line for a chance to shake the hand of the voice that had become a comfort and a friend to them in some deep disembodied way. That for me was a bit awe inspiring and humbling.

The lessons here are manifold. First, of course, it to take action and do what you love and you will find your tribe. Do it consistently and you may find success, however you define that.

Another lesson, closer to home, is that your tribe is at once a great privileged and a humbling responsibility. To have written the words and produced the voice that creates this investment from your tribe, just by doing what you love, is a great responsibility.

We all have our tribes. We have this responsibility for our tribes. What are you going to do today to make the investment of your tribe worth it and honorable?

I am humbled. I am truly grateful. Thank you for joining me on my adventure. On my journey.

I’ll see you out there.

Ok my friends you have run very quickly to the end of episode 4-374 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Let’s go for a cool-down and stretch a bit, shall we?

After the Maine Marathon I decide to double down and run BayState in a couple weeks. It’s a flatish course design for qualifying. I’ve qualified there twice. I know the course. My buddies Frank and Brian are running so Hopefully we can pace each other. Based on the Maine marathon I’m in good enough shape to run a fast race on the right day.

I’m going to run the Groton Town Forest 10 miler tomorrow as a workout. I’ll go out easy for the first 3 miles then race it in. Should be fun. It’s a difficult course and one of my favorites. It’s one of my club races and I do love to support the club.

I’ve adjusted to the new work schedule. The most challenging part has been burning in new habits. I take the train in with Teresa. Most mornings I’ll where my workout stuff and do my workout early then shower up for work. The logistical challenge is remembering to bring everything you need for both activities and doing so either at night before you go to bed or in the morning before you head in.

So far I have forgotten, a belt, my office keys, my car keys, and my wallet and my shaving stuff – on different days this month. No big deal – I just work around it. One day this week I was throwing my workout stuff into my backpack – BTW I’ve found a use for the backpack that ASICS gave me – and I grabbed what I thought were my Hokas, but they ended up being a 6-year old pair of Brooks Launch that had been retired to lawn mowing long ago.

I had an easy run on the schedule. I just wore the old shoes. I mean I ran a few hundred miles in those shoes at some point so I should be able to jog around the city in them for an hour! See? Smikle and muddle through. It all works out.

I quick update of Buddy the old Wonder dog. He’s doing ok. He’s shrinking. Literally shrinking. He appreciates the colder weather but he can’t run much anymore. His back end bothers him and he’s slow getting up and down. Just like me, he doesn’t’ know he’s old. He sleeps all day and gets bored still. He’s happy, but that’s built into his DNA.

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Another product I want to give you a review on is a pair of Bluetooth Headphones I’ve been trying to kill. I got these sent to me in June by a company called Jaybird Wireless. They are the X3 – sweat proof, secure fit. I have not been able to kill them.

You see my super-power is sweat. Not just any sweat, toxic Chris sweat. You folks are privy to the kind of workouts I do in all kinds of weather. Most headphones I’ve used that claim to be sweat-proof are not Chris-Sweat-Proof. They last a couple weeks and I kill them. I have not been able to kill these. The closest I got was one long workout in July when I filled them with so much fluid that they sounded like they were underwater. I thought that was it, but they bounced back.

They survived the sweat filled days of July and august. They survived multiple of those as long runs. They survive the occasional rainy tempest – like the back half of the Wapack Trial race. At this point I’m willing to concede that these things are tough. The only thing I managed to kill was the little blue light that comes on when you put them in the charging cradle. That does not come on anymore. But they still charge.

They come in an overly complex iPhone type collectors box packaging. They have a tricky little USB charging cradle. They have a companion iPhone audio program that has dozens of audio profile adjustments and other tweaky Millennial thingies which I ignored. The default sound is fine.

They are on a flat wire that you can loop around the back of your neck. They have multiple secure-fit ear thingies. They work ok but I’ve been losing the little ear buds and I’ve found them hit or miss on the security side. I’ve had my best luck jamming the earbud deep into my ears and looping the wire over my right ear to support the mic.

The challenge with this deep-jamming methodology is that they become totally noise cancelling which isn’t always a good thing when you’re running in traffic. The plastic wing-thingies that are supposed to grip onto the inside curve of your ears work, but I find them a bit stiff so that they make my ears sore after a while.

They are supposed to work for making calls. When I’ve tried that the people on the other end can’t hear me. I’m probably doing something wrong. The Bluetooth set up and sync works great. Actually, too well. They will sync to my phone and my computer and my car and sometimes I have no idea what they are connecting to until I notice sound coming out.

I do love the hands-free, wire-free experience. You can put your iPhone in a plastic bag and stick it in your pocket or in your backpack. That’s very convenient and safer for the iPhone. They claim an 8 hour battery life. I haven’t taken them much beyond 4-5 hours but they made it that far.

The bottom line here is that I tried to kill these headphones and couldn’t. I’m going to keep trying. I do have some challenges keeping them in my ears but I do appreciate them and they have helped make some long runs much more enjoyable.

Again, I don’t make any money off it, but the links are in the show notes.

Hello, good morning maybe, and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-374, but who’s really counting anymore? This is the endurance sports podcast where we dole out such useful tips as ‘don’t eat curry for lunch if you have a speed workout planned for the afternoon’ Good thing there’s a public restroom on the Esplanade where I run now. That was like a scene from Alien.

Oh, sorry, that was a little rough right out of the gates wasn’t it? The weather is finally turning colder now so we are getting some relief from the hot humid days we’ve suffered through all summer. The leaves are doing their fall leaf thing. I’m sitting in my home office typing on a new keyboard that arrived for my Surface.

I like this Surface. I’ve had it for 3 years now. I use it like a laptop. It’s got an excellent form factor for travel. It’s classified as a tablet so you can keep it on during takeoff and landing. It does everything I need to do but my keyboard went wonky on me this week and started adding extra letters into my sentences.

Today I have a chat with Jonathan who, at the time we had this conversation was training for a BQ attempt. If I can manage it I’m going to do this as the first of a 3-part series. He missed his goal at his first race by a couple minutes and is currently scheduled to try again in a couple weeks. I think it would be interesting for you to see both the physical and emotional arc of missing your goal and extending your cycle to double down.

He’s got a great back story. Check out the links in the show notes. He’s a physician and was a pack-a-day 400+ guy in his residency and turned his health, and his life, around with endurance sports.

I’ve also got a quick race report for the Maine marathon I ran since last we talked and in section two a pep talk on using our endurance in life.

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I’m going to throw in a couple product reviews today. The first one is some socks. I’m a big believer in good athletic socks when you’re going long. They help keep your feet healthy. But, other than that I can run in just about any athletic sock. I tend to like the short socks now. I got like 10 pair from ASICS when I ran the New York City Marathon for them and they have survived very well. I typically tear through the big toe after a few months in regular socks. I still have most of these, so they are pretty tough.

A couple weeks ago I got a couple pair of socks from an outfit called nice laundry. Now, there is nothing super special about the tech socks they sent. Good, tough tech material, reinforced in the heel and toe. Good socks. I don’t make any money off this but if you’re interested the link is in the show notes.

There is something very special about the second pair they sent me. They are 1980’s style tube socks that are tech socks. You know the ones I’m talking about. Remember like Larry Bird style socks? Maybe 8 inches up the calf, white socks with the two colored stripes at the top? Yeah, those.

Now I can show up at a race with my fashion-disaster short shorts AND a pair of 1980’s, retro tube socks to race in! It totally completes my fashion disaster protocol.

Socks are the next thing. Our over-financed friends in Silicon Valley have decide that socks are the next accessory. We’ve done away with ties. Have to find something else to differentiate yourself from the fashion herd. It’s socks now. Socks as a service.

On with the show.

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

My Story: During my residency I was 241 pounds, miserable, and knew something had to be done about my health. So I started slow and short, and revisited my past love for distance running and marathons. Eventually I was turned on to Ironman and found my new love! Teaching myself to swim in the hospital pool and riding a folding bike to work each day, I applied by lottery for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. On my 39th birthday, I was selected for and ultimately finished this race…having also completed my first Ironman in Lake Placid just 10 weeks earlier. Consequently, in 2012 I was honored to be chosen for the Runner’s World photo shoot issue (video).

Training and competing - with *myself* - is my ultimate passion. It has enabled me to face and conquer life’s toughest challenges. Ironman has taught me that it doesn’t matter what you think, how you feel, or what you say in life - only what you *do*. I live this motto for my children.

Outro

Ok my friends you have run very quickly to the end of episode 4-374 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Let’s go for a cool-down and stretch a bit, shall we?

After the Maine Marathon I decide to double down and run BayState in a couple weeks. It’s a flatish course design for qualifying. I’ve qualified there twice. I know the course. My buddies Frank and Brian are running so Hopefully we can pace each other. Based on the Maine marathon I’m in good enough shape to run a fast race on the right day.

I’m going to run the Groton Town Forest 10 miler tomorrow as a workout. I’ll go out easy for the first 3 miles then race it in. Should be fun. It’s a difficult course and one of my favorites. It’s one of my club races and I do love to support the club.

I’ve adjusted to the new work schedule. The most challenging part has been burning in new habits. I take the train in with Teresa. Most mornings I’ll where my workout stuff and do my workout early then shower up for work. The logistical challenge is remembering to bring everything you need for both activities and doing so either at night before you go to bed or in the morning before you head in.

So far I have forgotten, a belt, my office keys, my car keys, and my wallet and my shaving stuff – on different days this month. No big deal – I just work around it. One day this week I was throwing my workout stuff into my backpack – BTW I’ve found a use for the backpack that ASICS gave me – and I grabbed what I thought were my Hokas, but they ended up being a 6-year old pair of Brooks Launch that had been retired to lawn mowing long ago.

I had an easy run on the schedule. I just wore the old shoes. I mean I ran a few hundred miles in those shoes at some point so I should be able to jog around the city in them for an hour! See? Smikle and muddle through. It all works out.

I quick update of Buddy the old Wonder dog. He’s doing ok. He’s shrinking. Literally shrinking. He appreciates the colder weather but he can’t run much anymore. His back end bothers him and he’s slow getting up and down. Just like me, he doesn’t’ know he’s old. He sleeps all day and gets bored still. He’s happy, but that’s built into his DNA.

…

Another product I want to give you a review on is a pair of Bluetooth Headphones I’ve been trying to kill. I got these sent to me in June by a company called Jaybird Wireless. They are the X3 – sweat proof, secure fit. I have not been able to kill them.

You see my super-power is sweat. Not just any sweat, toxic Chris sweat. You folks are privy to the kind of workouts I do in all kinds of weather. Most headphones I’ve used that claim to be sweat-proof are not Chris-Sweat-Proof. They last a couple weeks and I kill them. I have not been able to kill these. The closest I got was one long workout in July when I filled them with so much fluid that they sounded like they were underwater. I thought that was it, but they bounced back.

They survived the sweat filled days of July and august. They survived multiple of those as long runs. They survive the occasional rainy tempest – like the back half of the Wapack Trial race. At this point I’m willing to concede that these things are tough. The only thing I managed to kill was the little blue light that comes on when you put them in the charging cradle. That does not come on anymore. But they still charge.

They come in an overly complex iPhone type collectors box packaging. They have a tricky little USB charging cradle. They have a companion iPhone audio program that has dozens of audio profile adjustments and other tweaky Millennial thingies which I ignored. The default sound is fine.

They are on a flat wire that you can loop around the back of your neck. They have multiple secure-fit ear thingies. They work ok but I’ve been losing the little ear buds and I’ve found them hit or miss on the security side. I’ve had my best luck jamming the earbud deep into my ears and looping the wire over my right ear to support the mic.

The challenge with this deep-jamming methodology is that they become totally noise cancelling which isn’t always a good thing when you’re running in traffic. The plastic wing-thingies that are supposed to grip onto the inside curve of your ears work, but I find them a bit stiff so that they make my ears sore after a while.

They are supposed to work for making calls. When I’ve tried that the people on the other end can’t hear me. I’m probably doing something wrong. The Bluetooth set up and sync works great. Actually, too well. They will sync to my phone and my computer and my car and sometimes I have no idea what they are connecting to until I notice sound coming out.

I do love the hands-free, wire-free experience. You can put your iPhone in a plastic bag and stick it in your pocket or in your backpack. That’s very convenient and safer for the iPhone. They claim an 8 hour battery life. I haven’t taken them much beyond 4-5 hours but they made it that far.

The bottom line here is that I tried to kill these headphones and couldn’t. I’m going to keep trying. I do have some challenges keeping them in my ears but I do appreciate them and they have helped make some long runs much more enjoyable.

Again, I don’t make any money off it, but the links are in the show notes.

Hello and welcome to this autumn edition of the RunRunlive podcast. I’m a bit tardy with this one because of a perfect storm of scheduling priorities. Like I said I have a new gig in the city where I have been figuring out the commute and putting in long hours, plus I’ve been in the final stages of a training plan with those long runs and hard workouts.

Time has been short and logistics has been challenging for writing and recording.

But, this is not the ‘whine about things’ podcast. No this is the RunRunLive podcast where we talk about transformational power of endurance sports.

Today we interview Bill Sycalik from Run the parks – you may have seen him in that running magazine or heard him on a podcast recently – he’s got a good PR presence and it’s a great story. It’s a good chat. I like what he’s doing. It’s a good transformational story.

Like I said in the interludes comment last week I’ve been hard pressed with a new professional gig. I had two business trips this past week and have been putting in some long hours. I’m not complaining, I love it and I understand that the first 90 days in any new position, whether it’s a contract or a new job or a new role in your current company – those first 90 days are a special opportunity that you need to seize. And that can adjust your life balance.

So – here it is Saturday and I’m going to give you the present of a few hours of my thoughtful attention, my RunRunLive friends.

Training has been a struggle over the last couple weeks but I did get a nice long run in on the Wapack course and I’ve got another tomorrow. Am I ready for the Maine Marathon in 3 weeks? Of course. I could roll out of bed on a random Tuesday and run a marathon. Am I in race shape? I give myself a solid B- on that. My engine is still good but my legs aren’t keeping up as well.

The big news, I guess, is that I got my confirmation letter for the 2018 Boston Marathon. This will be my 20th Boston. I am qualified for this race. For those of you who have been on this journey with me, or more correctly on your own journeys with me, we’ve seen some ups and downs haven’t we? We’ve been witness to many things. We’ve experienced the meat and marrow of many endurance happenings. We’ve learned a lot. What a long wonderful trip it’s been, huh?

…

Here’s a story from one of my first days in the new office.

I have been getting into the city early to beat the traffic. Another team member showed up. Just he and I, chatting. I don’t know how we got on the subject, maybe it was a segue from the nice cool fall weather, but he starts telling me about the time he ran the Ragnar Relay on Cape Cod.

I nod and ask some clarifying questions like, ‘Did you have a 12-person team? Did anyone pull up injured?”

Then he tells me about how he ran it with his Spartan buddies and about how obstacle racing is really his big thing.

I ask, “Do you run that one up in Killington?”

He says, “Yeah, I love the Beast.”

I say, “Good for you, that’s a tough race.”

He says, “Yeah, I did it in like 9 ½ hours.”

And the point of my story is that I didn’t say a word about myself. I just complimented him on his achievements. Because, I try not to be ‘that guy’ in the office. I always have tried not to be ‘that guy’ that people avoid because ‘that guy’ always drives the conversation back to himself.

Let people celebrate their lives and achievements. Don’t always be playing ‘who’s got the biggest’, even if they stumble into your domain of expertise. Celebrate with them. It’s not about you.

…

But just for the record…Remember back when we ran the Ragnar as a Brooks sponsored ultra team with 6 athletes and won it? And, yeah, remember when I talked to Joe DeSena about his Spartan stuff last year and he gave me an entry to the Killington Beast and a ran it in 6 ½ hours as a 54 year old?

But, it’s not about me, is it! Hah!

On with the show.

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Bill Sycalik is the founder of the National Parks Marathon Project, his full-time effort to run a self-directed, self-managed, self-measured 26.2 miles in all 59 U.S. National Parks. Until June 2016 Bill was a management consultant leading large technology projects in New York City. Unfortunately, his passion for health, fitness and the outdoors were out of synch with his profession and location. He wanted to break from the corporate world and get back to nature.

When he read about the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, as a marathon runner, Bill thought what better way to experience the parks than covering 26.2 miles in each one. He saw an opportunity to promote the National Parks, reconnect with the natural world through long trail runs and inspire people to get out and move in our country’s unspoiled wilderness. So, he quit his job and started running the parks.

Bill ran 48 marathons in the past 54 weeks completing all the parks in the lower 48 states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands. He is now planning to visit the parks in Hawaii, American Samoa in Alaska. To learn more about Bill and the project go to www.runningtheparks.com. To connect with Bill and join

him at a park please reach out via Instagram (@runningtheparks), Twitter (@runtheparks) or Facebook

Section two – The First 90 Days - http://runrunlive.com/the-first-90-days

Outro

Ok my friends you have run through various national parks in various states to the end of episode 4-373 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Please wipe that dirt of your feet before you come in.

I drove up to Quebec for an appointment this week and the leaves are starting to turn. It’s a pretty drive but there is nothing up there in northern NH and VT. Since the paper mills left there really isn’t much industry. There’s no traffic either. You can just set the cruise control and nap for a couple hours.

Having had an office in Quebec City for a number of years I know this route very well. And, I know that if you want to you can cut through Franconia Notch. There are a string of mountain hiking trails in there, smack dab in the middle of the Presidential Range of mountains.

I pulled off, threw my kit on and went for an afternoon run/hike up the falling waters trail up the side of Mt. Lafayette. It’s a super difficult trail. You can’t really run it. The rangers call it ‘falling people trail’ because of all the tourists they have to drag out.

It’s really pretty though. Runs right up a cascading brook. Not runnable per se but certainly works your legs and gets your HR up. I only fell once on the way back down.

Like I said I’m still trying to figure out the rhythms of my new gig. We are all in the same boat. We all get the same 24 hours. You just have to figure out the rhythm that works to balance everything. You have to remember that any change like this causes stresses that you may not be aware of. They can manifest in ways you’re not aware of. Just got to keep your head right and try to get enough sleep!

I did get a club membership in the building and that should give me more flexibility to work out around the traffic or even just to shower and start exploring Boston with my feet. I’ve never actually lived in the city and hence really don’t know my way around the city proper much. When I’m not traveling I’ll see if I can’t seize that opportunity to fill in some blanks.

I’ve missed a few workouts with the travel and the exhaustion but I do what I can. That’s the secret, do what you can.

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Interlude – 2107-001

Interlude

Ok my friends, my loyal and good-natured listeners, I have good news and probably more good news. I’m just not going to be able to squeeze in a show for you this weekend. I know I’m breaking a covenant, a holy writ, a treasured norm. I know I’m forcing you to stumble unencumbered by my droll wit and troubled psych-babble it your weekend long runs. But, it’s the smart thing to do.

My excuse is that I started a new gig in the city this week and have been putting in 14 hour days with the long commute. Both my mental carrying case and my cache of time is exhausted. I’m in that early phase that requires a steep learning process and the corresponding time commitment to get there.

My training took a bit of a hit as well this week. Not to worry, they have a super nice gym in the office, you know one of those city gyms with attractive young people, shiny weights and a row of 50 high-end treadmills staring hopefully out the glass front across the alley at the sky scraper neighbor. I should have my membership next week. That will allow me to get in there early or stay late and workout while the rest of the cubicle monkeys fight each other in road-rage traffic like demented rats in a box.

But – Don’t give up on me! I do have some great content for you. I have an interview with Bob sycalik who is running a marathon in in every state in a national park. I have my race report for running the always amazing Wapack Trail Race in the tail end of Hurricane Harvey last weekend. I have several interviews cued up with marathoners and ultra-runners now that the racing season is in full swing. And, you can bet your carbon outsoles that I’ll be dropping some wisdom on job transitions!

Figured I’d keep you in the loop. Gotta go. Dropped a nice 10 minute song for you at the end of this. It’s the Grateful Dead live from Orpheum Theatre - San Francisco, CA 7-18-76.

Hello and welcome to this autumn edition of the RunRunlive podcast. Did you know that when I originally launched the podcast I sent the information to Nigel in the UK who, at the time, managed the running podcast list. He mistakenly called it the RunRunLiver podcast. Which is an entirely different thing. Ironically I did run the Boston Marathon for the Liver Foundation one year.

But, no this is the RunRunLive podcast where we talk about transformational power of endurance sports.

Today I’ve got an interview for you with the Bob, the race director for the Maine Marathon in Portland Maine. I decided to run it on Oct 1st. I thought I needed a Maine marathon but I remembered that I ran that Bay of Fundy marathon back in 2013 when I was doing that marathon a month project after the bombings at Boston. I think that one counts as a Maine marathon. It started and ended in Maine.

Anyhow, I got Bob on to talk about the race and the history of it. Maine has an unexpectedly vibrant running community.

In section one we’ll talk about how to deal with a bad workout. In section two I’m going to talk about the Grateful Dead!

I’ve been training. I had a rough build week last week. I had a 1:30 step up run and really struggled to get my Heart rate up into zone 4 at the end. My legs wouldn’t do it. It’s been humid here and I don’t do well in the heat and humidity.

Last Sunday I was down on the Cape with my kids and ran a 17 miler out on the rail trail. I got out early, I positioned a bottle of water out on the course at around 4.5 miles out. I was doing an out and back so I would be able to refill my bottle at 4.5 and around 13. But it was so humid I ran myself into serious dehydration in that middle 8 miles.

By the time I got back to my bottle I had the chills and was feeling classic dehydration symptoms. I got some water in me but the last 4.5 miles were rough. My legs were sore for a couple days. Good thing I have a down week this week. Combination of running on spent legs and running myself out of water.

Made my way to the hammock and did some napping and reading after that.

It’s cooling off now. We’re sliding into autumn and then fall. Buddy, the old wonder dog, was miserable in the heat and humidity, but now that it’s cooling and drying off he has come back to life. I ‘ve been referring to it as ‘the quickening’.

…

I’ll tell you a funny story from last week. Friday morning I was open with my first call at noon. I got up early did some work and decided to knock off my workout mid-morning so I could drive down to the Cape in the afternoon. I had a hill workout that would take me around an hour and I planned to get back around 11:00 so I could clean up and be on the call at noon.

I got out and hit my hill workout. It wasn’t too hot, but hot enough to work up the sweat engine. I got back to the house, stripped off my wet clothes and was about to jump into the shower. My phone starts ringing in my office.

I run to check the number and it’s the company I’m supposed to have a call with at noon. So I pick it up. My contact says, “We’re all on the phone waiting for you.”

I say, “I thought the call was at noon?”

He says, “We rescheduled it.”

I say, “Ummm…OK, I’ll dial in.”

So there I am 5 minutes late for an important call, buck naked, sweating like a fountain. So, I picked up the phone and dialed into the call. Good thing it wasn’t a video call.

Go ahead. Hold that picture in your head for the next time you talk to me on the phone!

On with the show.

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Voices of reason – the conversation

7 Weeks to Race Day!

We don't want to scare you, we know it's still summer, but race day is creeping up on us! There's still plenty of time to get your training miles in though, maybe with some of our new race ambassadors?

2017 Gorham Savings Bank Maine Marathon Race Ambassadors

We were so impressed by everyone who applied to be a race ambassador this year, it was hard to narrow it down! But narrow it down we did and we're very pleased to introduce our first class of race ambassadors:

You'll see them out training this fall in their Maine Marathon training shirts, leading training runs, and talking about how their preparations for October 1 are going on social media. All six Race Ambassadors are excited to share what they love about this event and how they can share that with you, so make sure to follow them for updates. For more details on this great group, visit the website !

A Sneak Peek at the Medal

And all you have to do is cross the finish line....

We're on Instagram!

We're expanding across the social sphere... Follow us, heart us, share us, retweet and regram us, let us know what you like!

Tag your posts with #mainemarathon and #mymainemarathon so we can find you too!

Training Shirts Now Available!

Have you seen the new Maine Marathon training shirts? If you visited the Maine Track Club/Maine Marathon table at the Beach to Beacon expo, you probably did, but if not, feast your eyes. Lightweight and moisture-wicking, these will keep up with you on your long runs and let everyone know what you're training for. Available now for $15 (includes postage) on RunSignUp .

Run With Us On October 1, 2017!

Outro

Ok my friends you have run along the rocky sea shore to the end of episode 4-372 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Nice work.

Here we are slipping into fall. You all will be tapering into your big fall races now, right? Good luck. Stay healthy.

We had a full on solar eclipse this week in the US and parts of the UK. It was nice to see people focusing on the wonders of science for a couple hours.

I’m going to run the Wapack Trail Race on September 3rd if anyone is interested in coming up for it. The full race is a super technical 18 mile mountain race. You could run it as a 2-person relay if you want. It’s a hard course but very pretty, very New England and very special. I’ll have to download 2 Grateful Dead concerts for it because if I’m lucky I’ll break 4 hours.

Then The next thing for me is the Maine Marathon. I don’t feel like I’m in the best marathon shape but we’ll see what happens over the next 4-5 weeks. You never know.

I’ve been working on eating clean and losing some weight this week. Somehow, I crept back up over 180 since June. I’d like to work my way down closer to 170 for race weight. I have a predisposition towards chubbiness and my body is very efficient so even with my running volume it doesn’t’ take much for some extra weight to creep on around the middle.

Similarly, I can take it off quickly by adjusting my calories a bit and eating clean. If I didn’t work out so much it would be a horror show. I’d have to learn how to live on 1500 calories a day.

…

I stumbled across a conversation this morning. Someone was asking how to find balance. A respondent suggested that they use a model called the ‘seven elements of wellness’. I traced this model back to the University of California Riverside.

It’s basically a set of advice for students on how to not get overwhelmed. Similar to other models that segment your life into the different aspects or gardens. The trick is how to give each garden enough water to thrive while not over attending any one aspect.

That’s the trick to a balanced approach to life, tactically, daily, is to devote a certain amount of your energy to each of these segments. The balance will flow and flux over time but you need to pull up to a high enough level and consciously allocate time to each important segment each day.

Otherwise you get sucked into one aspect, like work or religion and you lose your humanity in the process.

Hello my friends. How are you? How’s your summer going? Welcome to our little endurance sports podcast that we’ve been doing for more than a decade, welcome in fact to episode 4-371.

We have a good show for you today. I’m quite satisfied with this one. Good content. Good writing. Good audio. As they say “Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then.”

Today we have an interview with Arnar from Tymewear. I’ve been advising Arnar on his start up. Hopefully I’m doing more good than harm. I went in to see him this week. He’s working out of seaport area of Boston. There’s a lot going on down there. That’s the place GE is building its new HQ.

Since I was in there I recorded the interview in this show. Interesting stuff.

In section one I have a useful instructional piece on smoothies! Yes smoothies!

In Section two I have finally wrote down a story that has been bouncing around in my head for a good 5+ years. Working with Arnar finally shook it loose. As you know I’m a big science fiction fan. I was able to combine Science Fiction and running into a story! How about that? And no zombies required.

Nothing unusual to report on the training front. Last week was a down week and I’m ramping it back up this week. Still have to go out tonight and do a hill workout when it cools down a little. I had to sleep in a bit this morning. I’ve had some sort of allergy or cold this week. I noticed my HR was high on Tuesday when I did my morning 10 mile trail run.

I gave blood on Wednesday and I’ve figured out how to pass all the hurdles. I mentally raise my heart rate up into the 50’s by thinking about fighting and sprinting and finishing a race etc. – and that gets me by the low heart rate constraint. Then I took a tip from one of my running buddies and pounded water all day going in so I would be dehydrated and sure enough the blood came squirting out! No problems.

I managed to get down to my house on the Cape and spend a couple days cleaning. I did ride my bike over to the ocean and go for a snorkel. Got some sun.

…

My tomatoes are coming in but the real bounty is in the wild black raspberries outside my garden. There are so many they are falling ripe to the ground. I go out every couple days and pick a quart or so but I have to tamp down my compulsion to pick all the ripe berries because I would be out all day.

I told Teresa that we are disturbing the natural ecosystem by pillaging all the wild black berries. Those berries want to be eaten by wild animals who then spread the berry seed with a bit of fertilizer throughout the neighborhood. I told her if we eat the berries that only way we can save nature is to poop in the woods.

She and I were all set to climb Mt. Washington last weekend but when I checked the weather it said it was 34 degrees Fahrenheit, 100% rain and hail with 40 mph winds on the mountain. I’ve had my fair share of adventures but I told her that didn’t sound like something we should willfully walk into.

On with the show.

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

Voices of reason – the conversation

There are a lot of products in the sports tech and wearables space, what led you to start working on the TymeWear solution? What’s the origin story?

I was developing prosthetics, orthotics, and exoskeletons before co-founding Tyme Wear. Those experiences taught me how valuable accurate insights about our body can be, and that the worlds of soft materials and smart electronics could be merged in a very interesting way. That through some innovation, we could create products that have technology that is transparent to the user, but that delivers real value towards improving our health, wellbeing and performance.

How is this different than my FitBit or Garmin Watch?

Our product is a t-shirt. We wanted our technology to blend into the things an athlete would be wearing anyway. We collect physiological data that is as accurate as medical grade equipment. The more accurate the data, the more actionable and useful it becomes.

Why do I need this? As an endurance athlete, why do I care?

For any athlete that wants to improve, it helps a lot to know your current endurance limit, and what your potential is. We measure ventilatory threshold (VT) and VO2max. The VT is your current endurance limit, improving your endurance improves your VT. Your VO2max tells you how deep is your well, your potential. Knowing these two things informs exactly how hard to push, and helps you define and reach your goals.

Respiration is directly correlated to your effort level. It is also a measure of your physical limits, your VT and your VO2max. HR by comparison is a great relative measure of effort, but because it has so many compounding factors like stress, sleep quality, to name a couple, it can be very unreliable.

Who is your target market?

We are for dedicated athletes that want to train to the limit of their ability, value accurate information on their workouts, but struggle with knowing where their limit is and how to train to it.

Where do you want to be in 5 years?

Working hard :)

If you had to say what your mission is what would it be?

To make our bodies accurate data available and actionable to anyone, anywhere.

What have you learned so far in bringing this product to market?

Working at the intersection of industries is rewarding but challenging. We work with apparel designers, electronics manufacturers, athletes, coaches and medical professionals. Each one has their own language and frame of reference. Our job is to be in the middle and make sense of it all.

What kind of help do you need from our audience?

We are looking for beta testers that are dedicated endurance athletes. Meaning anyone that goes out at least 3 times a week. We want people that are curious about knowing their current endurance limit. People that are skeptical about the current way of tracking performance. People that can help us learn and improve our product.

Outro

OK my friends, you have run in your high-technology smart garment to the end of episode 4-371 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

I’ve got a few things lined up for you. First is this guy I interviewed that is running a marathon in every national park in the US. You may have seen him in that running magazine this month – they are always copying me.

I’m also trying to get the RD for the Portland Maine marathon on for a debrief. I’m going to run the race on Oct 1st. I’m in good enough shape, I need to tune up and lose a little weight, but I’ll race.

Before that I’m going to run the full Wapack Trail Race again this year. Which is an 18 mile technical mountain race that my club puts on. I think we’re doing a relay this year if you want to come up and do one way, which would be 9 miles.

And, of course we are looking ahead to December 31st again this year for the Groton Marathon.

…

I’m going to swear a bit in the next few paragraphs if you want to plug the kids’ ears.

I was talking with a friend of mine last week. He was supposed to go on vacation but his wife got sick and I could tell he was mad about it. He didn’t ask me for advice, but I gave it to him anyhow. Very simple advice. Don’t be an asshole.

We get all cranked up inside our own heads and start acting like we’re right and someone else is wrong. It’s all ego. We construct these stories of how we are long suffering and put upon. I know I do it. And then we lash out.

Do you know what the other person sees? They don’t see any of that stuff in your head. They just see you lashing out. You just look like an asshole.

My wife called me last night. She wanted to know what I cooked for dinner. I’m thinking to myself “What the hell? What am I your cook? I’ve got a cold. I’ve got work to do. What have you done for me lately?” Then I realized that she didn’t know any of that and it didn’t matter to her. So I chose to not be an asshole. I got some food from the market and cooked dinner.

I was standing at the fish counter in the market down on Cape Cod. There was a young couple there fighting over whether or not to buy mussels. She wanted mussels. He kept saying “Buy the mussels if you want” but he was really saying, “Mussels? What are you stupid or crazy? Why do I put up you’re your insufferable crap. Mussels my eye.”:

When he finally wandered off and left her standing there, contemplating the mussels, I leaned in, smiled and said “Tell him to stop being an asshole.”:

Hello my friends, and welcome to episode 4-370, of the RunRunLive Podcast.

How are your summers going? Manage to take some time off from work? Spent some time walking on the beach with your family? Good! You have to know when to refresh yourself, right? ‘sharpening the saw’ is what Steven Covey called it as one of his 7 Habits.

It’s also Ironman and Ultra season. Congrats to all my friends who did IronMan Lake Placid last weekend. Looks like they got good weather for it.

I see many of you are struggling with the summer heat. I feel sorry for you, but we still haven’t gotten the bad summer heat yet. We had a couple days with the humidity last week, but this week it’s been cool and beautiful, like spring weather.

I’ve been grinding away on my training. I am fairly certain for an October marathon. I put in a couple 40+ mile weeks since we last talked. That’s on 4-5 days of running. Coach had me do two hilly 1:30 runs both weeks on Tuesday and Wednesday. A hill workout on Friday and a 2:15 long run on the weekend.

I’ve been mixing them up between roads and trials just to stay strong. Legs feel fine. Some small aches and pains but nothing indicative of a problem. My engine continues to be strong. My heart rate is really strong in these runs. The only thing I’m lacking is the big volume and the speed.

Interestingly I’m training without any fuel. Just water. 2 hours is about what I consider my fuel threshold. I’m strong right through these mid-distance runs with no fuel. That bodes well for my training capacity.

I got a great benefit from my 5 at 5 project in June. I’m rolling out of bed early and getting these workouts in because the cadence just feels right. I’d usually wait ‘til the afternoon or evening, but this is great to get them done and out of the way.

Today I’ve got the interview with Tim ‘JP’ Collins about anxiety. I try to bring on guests that are interesting to you folks. I had listened to Tim get interviewed a few times and really like his message. I wanted to bring him on and delve, specifically into the dynamics of stress and anxiety around amateur

In section one I’m going to talk about a revolution in data that is about to happen for training. I’m a technology geek and I think we’re on the verge of a whole new era in training data.

In section two I’m going to talk about the concept of life-long learning.

Here’s an anxiety tip. When you are out on your vacation, walking on the beach, I want you to select a small, smooth stone. Something interesting. About the size of a large coin. Something you can put in your pocket.

This is going to be your comfort stone. It’s a totem. When you are reflecting on a time that you were at peace with the universe take out your comfort stone and play with it. Roll it around in your hand. Rub it. Feel it. Associate that peace of mind with your stone.

Now you can carry it with you into stressful situations in your pocket as a reminder of peaceful states. You can have it with you on your desk for stressful phone calls. It’s a nice, physical reminder that there is peace in this world and it is in your control.

…

I had a good run with my red raspberry bushes. They kept me in smoothies and enlightened my oatmeal for a couple weeks. But, they seem to have petered out now.

But, the black raspberry bushes, the ones that I did not plant. The ones that I have been cutting back and fighting with for years, they are full of ripe berries.

Let’s review. The bushes I planted, cultivated, watered, tended and fertilized had some berries. But, the weeds that I fought with my machete, that found their way on to uncultivated land, that compete with the other bushes and wildlife – those bushes are resplendent with bounty!

What’s the lesson? Sometimes you have to give in to what fits in that environment and stop trying to control everything. Enjoy the berries.

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Tim JP Collins helps people overcome Anxiety to consider what is possible in their lives. Tim's approach isn't just about coping, it's about moving past Anxiety and fear to live the life you were destined for.

Tim worked in the corporate world as a Vice President of Sales for 15 years, so is well versed in the business space.

After following the traditional path of trying to fix his anxiety and failing, he started experimenting on himself, this created the drive for him to want to spread the message and his findings with the world.

Tim is the creator & host of "The Anxiety Podcast"​ and is quickly becoming one of the leading experts when it comes to anxiety.

Each week Tim interviews people that have stories that you will be able to relate to. The interviews are raw, real and vulnerable and people share what's really going on for them.

With close to a million downloads the podcast is quickly building a community of people looking for support, that are changing their lives.

Tim has also written “The Anxiety Journal” a book designed to get people to reflect and redesign their lives one day at a time

Tim believes that the more out of alignment we are in our lives, the more Anxiety & Stress will show up. So he really looks at the bigger picture when working with people.

Tim is also a sought after speaker on the topic of anxiety & stress and injects humor and authentic stories from his own life into his speaking.

When Tim isn’t speaking on the podcast or on stage he works with companies running “Workplace Wellness Retreats” helping to reduce stress and build happier people and thus more productive workplaces.

Tim has adopted a minimalist lifestyle and frequently travels with his young family.

Outro

OK my friends, have scampered, scurried and anxiously run to the end of episode 4-370 of the RunRunLive Podcast. You can relax now – you’re safe.

Like I said I’m training for an October race. Probably the Maine Marathon. I’m going to interview the Race Director today and see if I can weasel a comp entry out of him! I love old marathons.

I’ll probably run the Wapack Trail Race. I might do it as a two-person relay with Teresa. She and I are still planning to climb some mountains but she’s super busy with school so we’ve scaled back those expectations.

I caught a big bunny in my varmint trap. I didn’t eat it. Let it go. I was hoping to get the woodchuck. This week the woodchuck forced the gate to my garden and set up shop. Somewhere between Sunday and Wednesday that critter dug a den under a bed and ate everything.

I threw a bomb down his hole. Haven’t seen him since. Hope that doesn’t make the tomatoes taste funny. 😊

Our friend Buddy, the Old Wonder Dog, is doing fine. He’s quite content. WE get him out every now and then for a 20 minute trot in the woods.

He’s almost totally deaf now, like I said. You have to tap him on the shoulder to get his attention and it startles him. It’s like I’m appearing out of nowhere. I’m magically materializing. He gets very concerned now when he’s out in the front lawn. He can’t hear us in the house and he thinks we’ve abandoned him. He has to come in and check on us.

When I take him out in the woods I have to keep an eye on him because he loses track of where I am. I have to turn around and run back down the trial to him. Like I said. He’s happy. He’s content. He’s sanguine. Who could ask for more.

…

One of the books I’m reading is The active side of infinity by Carlos Castaneda . He had his 15 minutes in the 60’s for a sort of eastern / hallucigenic / native-American philosophy. I have an old hard copy but you can download it for free and there’s even an audio version for free on YouTube.

The one interesting nugget of thought I pulled out of the introduction was this: There is no birth or death or life per se. There are only different points of intensity on an infinite existence. There is not beginning or end. Birth is not a beginning but a manifestation of intensity. Death is not an end but a manifestation of a different intensity. They are points on an infinite spectrum.

Hello my friends, and welcome to episode 4-369, of the RunRunLive Podcast. Rolling into July and the dog days of summer. I don’t have any race reports for you this week, but I do have an excellent interview with Vybarr who wrote a book about running. We have a great chat.

I kicked the 5 at 5 project on July 1st! So, I officially made it 32 days. Now I’m playing around with some speedwork and getting ready to train for a fall race. There are a couple I’m looking at. Both reasonably flat. My old Buddy Brian is back training again so we did a couple longish runs on the weekend.

First one was out and about Groton with Frank. Frank, Brian and I started marathon training together in the late 90’s! It’s cool to run with them. Now that they’ve slowed down to my pace again. Frank had that hip resurfacing that we talked about and Brian had a foot problem that caused him to take a year off. We cranked out 14ish miles.

This week, I met Brian and Ryan on the BayState course in Lowell and we did a loop around the river of another 14 miles. It was hot, but we lucked out because they were having a triathlon in the river. We got to refill our bottles a couple times. We closed the last 1/3 of a mile pretty hard. Felt good.

My legs are in great shape and my aerobic fitness is good. I just don’t have and leg speed.

I bought a pair of Brooks Launch off the internet for $60. They are lighter and less cushion than the Hokas. It’s challenging to do speedwork in the Hoka Challengers because they are so squishy in the forefoot. The launch are more responsive. Takes a while to break them in and get comfortable after running in the Hokas for so long.

I ran to the local high school track the Wednesday after the fourth. If you ever read any of my stories about track workouts – this is that track. I have spent hundreds of miles there. The old track was heavily used. 15 – 20 years ago I learned where every pot hole and puddle was. I could run that track in the dark.

A couple years ago they finally resurfaced it. It was a nice new track. Then I noticed it started getting cracks and grass was growing through it in places. They called whoever installed it and made them do it again. Now it’s a new, new track.

Anyhow I was curious as to my leg speed after not having done any speedwork for a couple years. I ran down there. Now, in my mind I eyeballed the distance and it felt like 2 – 2.5 miles. Of course it’s actually 3.5 miles from my house. That’s a bit of a warm up.

When I got there, I loosened up, stretched out and did mile as hard as I felt I could. My legs felt like cement. I was really dragging them, no pop. I managed somewhere in the 6:30 mile range. Not horribly disappointing. I think the next big landmark for me in my slow slide into decrepitude will be when I can’t run a 1600 in the pace I used to run a marathon at! (My marathon PR is a 3:06:40 at Boston in 1998 – which is a 7:11 pace.)

Not to be discouraged, I went back down this week and did a set of 8 X 400 at an aggressive pace. They came in around 1:35, which isn’t bad, it’s like a 6:15-6:20 pace, but what was encouraging is that I was able to feel that speed form. Still not much pop, but good strength and form.

And I went back out Thursday in the rain and did a set of 800’s at tempo pace, coming in around a 6:50 pace.

I think in 3 weeks of speedwork I could get most of my pop back. Not super-useful for marathon training, but at this point I’m really just benchmarking speed with effort and heartrate before I start my next training cycle. Coach hates when I do useless speedwork.

…

Did you see the post I put up about the Chinese scientist who demonstrated quantum entanglement this week? I’ll try to give you the summary. Forgive me, I’m not a physicist, but I have always liked particle physics for some reason. This is the stuff that goes on sub-atomic or smaller than an atom. Atom is a word that the Greeks made up because they theorized that if you took matter apart you’d eventually find the smallest building block. From the Greeks up to the 20th century this was the atom.

Then smart mathematicians and physicists figured out that atoms where made up of smaller bits, and those smaller bits were made up of even smaller bits. “Turtles all the way down is the old joke about this, it’s called ‘infinite regression’.

And the physics, the way these particles interact with each other gets stranger all the time. In quantum entanglement two particles, in this case photons, which are particles of light, are behaviorally connected regardless of the distance that separates them. Meaning that if you do something to one of the particles, it also happens instantaneously to the entangled particle, NO MATTER WHERE THAT OTHER PARTCLE IS.

Einstein called this “Spooky action at a distance” and said it could not be true because it violates known quantum physics. The cool part is the instantaneous part. This means that something is travelling faster than the speed of light, which breaks all the rules.

So anyhow the Chinese measured quantum entanglement between two photons last week. One on earth and the other in a satellite in space. The SciFi part of this is that if you consider the entanglement a form of information or data, you could say, as the journalists did, that they transported a photon to space.

Pretty cool huh? There’s a lot we don’t know and some of it is cool.

Oh yeah – In section one I am sticking in chapter 9 from my marathonBQ audio book. I had this guy with a great Midwest voice record it for me in his studio. This is the version that’s on audible. This chapter is about what you need to bring with you if you’re going to be doing speedwork down at the track. Was thinking about this topic when I was down at the track this week.

In section two I’ll talk about dealing with uncertainty.

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Vybarr Cregan-Reid

VYBARR CREGAN-REID is a Reader in English and Environmental Humanities at the University of Kent. He has a popular blog, psychojography.com, and has written on and been interviewed about running in major publications all over the world. He has also written numerous articles and essays for academic journals and a book on Victorian culture, Discovering Gilgamesh.

Running is not just a sport. It reconnects us to our bodies and the places in which we live, breaking down our increasingly structured and demanding lives. It allows us to feel the world beneath our feet, lifts the spirit, lets our minds out to play, and helps us to slip away from the demands of the modern world.

When Vybarr Cregan-Reid set out to discover why running means so much to so many, he began a journey which would take him out to tread London’s cobbled streets, the boulevards of Paris, and down the crumbling alleyways of Ruskin’s Venice. Footnotes transports you to the deserted shorelines of Seattle, the giant redwood forests of California, and to the world’s most advanced running laboratories and research centers. Using debates in literature, philosophy, neuroscience, and biology, this book explores that simple human desire to run.

Liberating and inspiring, Footnotes reminds us why feeling the earth beneath our feet is a necessary and healing part of our lives.

Outro

Since we last talked I took Buddy down for his annual checkup and shots. He’s healthy as he can be for an old man of 14 years old. He loves the vet. They give him food and say nice things to him.

I told them he had gone totally deaf over the last 6 months. They said that’s normal and if it didn’t bother him, which it doesn’t, then there’s nothing to worry about. It actually helps this time of year with the thunderstorms, fireworks and for some reason the coyotes being super vocal at night.

He’s also lost 7-8 pounds since last year. A lot of it is muscle mass from getting older. He also leaned up running with me most days in June during the 5 at 5 project. I noticed the same thing in my own body. You just lose muscle mass as you get older.

I think I’m going to run the Portland Maine marathon on Oct. 1st. That’s a bit of a short training cycle for me but I’m in pretty good shape already. If you want to come up it’s a flat marathon in southern Maine. Plenty of places to stay and we’ll have some fun.

It’s been weird rainy and cool weather into July now. My Raspberries are coming in. I get about a pint a day – even after the birds take their share. With all the rain I’m having a mold issue. My tomatoes are going gang busters. We’ll see if they fruit out well. Need some hot weather for that.

…

Had a bit of a long week this week. We had lost a young family member in my wife’s family. Same age as my kids. It’s always a tragedy when we lose the young. Makes you think.

Rightly or wrongly it makes you reflect on your own life and your own family and the fragility of this life.

Folks, hold those you love tightly. Don’t waste time on petty things. Forget slights real and imagined. Reach out and hold the people who need you.

Right now, today, you can do one thing. You can turn on your love light and let it shine.

Hello my friends, and welcome to episode 4-368 the new summer, of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Happy 4th of July to all my patriotic American friends.

Today we have a chat with Julia who has a great story. She had that moment in her life where she almost lost everything that led her to endurance sports. We get some many of these stories and it makes me wonder why people seem to need to get knocked up side of the head to make big changes in their lives? Maybe it’s just that we need to be shown that anything is possible.

I’m dropping this show on June 30th. I am finishing up my 30-day 5 at 5 project where I simply got up and ran 5 miles at 5 AM every morning in the woods. I’ll give you my report out on that in one of the sections.

How are you doing? If you’re an ultra-marathoner you’re in the thick of your summer racing season. Likewise if you’re a triathlete or a biker you may be racing or training for a late summer race. If you’re one of those crazy marathon runners you probably need to start getting serious about your training plans for a fall race.

Such is the cycle of our lives.

I do love this time of year. I know many of you in Europe and in the great sun-beaten swaths of the Western US and in the densely humid jungles of the southern US, have been having some hot, hot, hot weather. But I, up here in New England have had a mild start to summer. We’ve had lots of rain and cooler temps.

The plants are happy and the little animals are thriving.

Buddy the old wonder dog ran my 5 at 5 project with me. I took him for a first loop and then went out again to get my miles. That seems to be a good fit for him and he loves the cooler weather.

How are your gardens doing? Mine was slow to get started due to the cool entrance of summer, but now my tomatoes, squash and cucumbers are coming on. My beans didn’t come up, but I was using seeds from 3-4 years ago, so no surprise really.

My berries are starting to come in and I am going to have a boatload of berries. Like I told you before I’ve got a bevy of apples on my trees as well so we might get some apples this year. How about you?

How’s your running? Your Swimming? Your biking? Your gardening?

What’s your next big race?

…

I watched a couple new movies since we last talked. The first one was John Wick 2, which I thought would be just another terrible action movie. I had low expectations. But it was good, for an action movie. They could have mailed it in and just done the typical guy with guns and cars Van Dame, Schwarzenegger, Stalone movie.

But they did more. They put in this Noir affectation that made the character less cartoonish and more likable. They did this thing with the fight scenes that included a lot of judo which was interesting. Not wire fighting like the Matrix or Bruce Lee type, but Olympic wrestling type moves.

And of course, lots of car crashes, explosions a high body count.

The other movie I watched was Trumbo. This is a sort of bio pic with Brian Cranston of Breaking Bad fame playing Dalton Trumbo.

I’ll give you a quick plot summary. Trumbo was one of the most famous, richest screen writes in Hollywood in 1947, but he also was a member of the Communist Party, which wasn’t a bad thing in 1944 when we were friends with Stalin, but was a very bad thing in 1947, as the beginning of the cold war kicked off a red scare.

Some wankers in the congress decided Hollywood was being run by communists and they were 5th columnist set on infecting the population with their commie ideas. They proceeded to create this extra-legal body called the House UnAmerican Activities committee, with subpoena power to weed out the commies.

Now, technically, the constitution says we can believe in anything we want and the government can go suck it. But, in times of hysteria, power hungry politicians always find some boogieman to whip up that allows them to set those rules aside.

The committee subpoenaed 10, mostly screen writers, who became known as ‘the Hollywood 10’ to question. These guys thinking they had rights decided to not answer the questions, and the times being what they were, they went to jail for a couple years for contempt or obstruction or something. Trumbo was one of those.

Meanwhile, at the start of this, Hollywood banded together and tried to turn the tide and tell middle America how ridiculous all this witch hunting was. They totally over estimated their star power and totally misread the sentiment of working class Americans. Joe-sixpack didn’t have any love for these lefty, pinko, coastal elitists and wanted the commies weeded out!

Thus started the blacklist. The studio heads were basically arm twisted into committing to not employ anyone who was on the blacklist. The blacklist did what it was intended to and put people out of work and ruined or even ended their lives.

There is a great series that goes through this in detail that I would highly recommend you listen to before watching Trumbo. It’s on the “You must Remember This” podcast by Karina Longworth. She did a whole season on the blacklist.

I won’t belabor the politics in Trumbo. Sometimes when you look back on the blacklist people are incredulous that this happened. It did.

These guys were actually communists, but mostly armchair communists not Stalinist. There was a fair amount of anti-Semitism in this as well.

It’s a good move and knowing the history of the era makes it a better movie. Cranston is great.

The thing I really took away from it, more than the political parallels, was how Trumbo just kept working.

They took his job and made him persona non grata, but he just kept writing. He did what he was good at and eventually Hollywood came back around. He won two Oscars for screenplays that were attributed to other writers, in one case a made up name.

That’s the lesson here for me. Just keep your fire burning. Keep using your gift. Keep doing what you’re good at and the rest doesn’t really matter, does it?

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

I love pacing races and talking to people about running and one on one i'm okay but having to give a speech in front of an audience is too scary for me to even think about.

again, i'm so very honored to have been chose to be a guest on your show.

thank you for allowing me to share my story. if i can inspire one person, one person to push their limits and leave their comfort zone, then I have done my job.

I read somewhere once that you life should have meaning; so I want to become an inspiration to others so they can try to do more and become more than they are today. the most powerful weapon is the human soul on fire. and if you fire up people to run more, to run faster, to do more, then you are the true inspiration. thank you for your time and i look forward to reading your book.

Outro

OK my friends, have you been proposed to and married during this marathon of episode 4-368 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Things are cooking. I’m busy. I’m working on a bunch of cool stuff.

One of the startups I’m working with in Boston is this smart garment company I told you about last time. They are going into a testing phase before they launch and are looking for runners so if you’re local and want to try some new tech and you’re training for a fall race let me know and I can introduce you. Even if you’re not local and you want to learn more I can introduce you for future stuff as they roll it out.

Yeah, I don’t know what I’m doing for a fall target race. I think I’ll look for a Maine race in October or November. Maybe I’ll target MDI, I know Gary Allen, we’ve interviewed him at least twice, he’s the race director, I’ve always wanted to run that race and I need a Maine race.

I’m toying with doing a version of my own MarathonBQ plan to see if I can get some speed back. I’d have to modify it to have less volume, more cross training and more recovery days. I’d never survive it as written.

Not sue how Buddy is going to react now that we’re finishing up the 5 at 5. He may revolt. He’ll be waking me up at 5 in the morning and demanding to hit the trails! There are worse things.

Next week I’ve got a couple interviews lined up. I’ve got an Irish author who’s book I’m reading, sort of a literary mashup of Murikami and Born to Run. (Editorial note: When I throw out authors or movies or other factoids like that I usually provide a link to an explanation of just what the fine day I’m talking about in the show notes and the accompanying blog post)

I’m also talking with Tim the anxiety guy.

We’ll getone of those up for the next show or maybe I’ll pull Arnar from the smart garment company in to talk about robo-running.

I curated two old episodes up onto the members feed. Consider being a member, it keeps the lights on over here at the RunRunLive HQ. It’s fun for me to go back and listen to myself and what I was doing 5 or 6 years ago.

By the way, this episode is more than likely the 10 year anniversary of RunRunLive as a podcast. How about that? Here we are. Who would have thought it was possible? Over a million downloads later. Don’t be a stranger. Reach out and say ‘hi’. I’m entirely approachable but not so terribly interesting in person.

It’s funny how time moves around us and floats us and sometimes sinks us. Makes you think about what you are doing today and how it will change the flow of time for your tomorrows. One of my more philosophical answers that frustrates my business partners is that I don’t know what the outcome is, but I can tell you that I’m doing the things today that will put me in a position to change those outcomes.

And that’s the message for you. You can’t get off your raft that is being pushed along in the river of time. You can’t change the past. You can’t change the future. You can only choose what you do with your great personal fire, your gift today. And that can be enough to not only change your life but also change the lives of others.

It’s not set. You can do whatever you want. You just have to decide to do it.

Today I choose to talk to you. About running. And thinking. And experimenting with the fabric of the universe in my small dusty corner of it.

Hello my friends, and welcome to episode 4-367 th3e new summer, of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Here we are in June. Today we are going to chat with Matt who qualified for Boston recently. Not to be entirely self-promotional, but he used the Marathon BQ plan from my book, “Marathon BQ – how to qualify for Boston in 14 weeks with a full time job and a family” that recounts my own journey to a Boston qualifier.

It fascinates me to listen to these folks who have run the plan and qualified. It’s wonderful to me that it actually works for them. When you write down something like that there is always the worry that it has nothing to do with the plan. Somehow it is just you and your genetics or your work ethic or pure chance tipping those scales.

So – congratulations to Matt for putting in the work and reaping the rewards. Welcome to Boston.

This book continues to have legs, especially in April for obvious reasons, in both the e-book and audio book form. I’m thrilled to help people direct their energy and strength in a way that enables their goals. It’s very fulfilling.

I am going to look into spinning up a webinar course version of it where I would step through the chapters over 12 or 13 weeks in a live webinar. If that’s something you’re interested in let me know. I’ll try to put the registration up on qualifyforboston.com – which I own shortly.

Should be fun and I’ll learn something and help some folks. I’m not a webinar rookie. I do them for work many times. If you’ve listened to this for a awhile you might have heard me talking about giving presentations, or presentation skills or such. It’s one of the things I’ve worked on my entire career. I think I’m up to a B+ level now.

I gave a presentation this week in Boston this week at a startup conference. It was a room with maybe 100 souls in it. It was a blast! I had a 5-minute slot to give a pitch and demo. It used to be that I would be flop sweating having to stand up in front of a room but I love it now. If you prepare well and practice your craft you can turn that nervous energy into performance energy.

I met a bunch of cool startups too. At least one I’m going to get on the podcast. It’s a sensor garment that you wear and it tracks all your vitals and your haptic response. I’m definitely going to wear test that thing.

I’m 16 days into my 5 at 5 project. This project is where I get up at 5 AM and run 5 miles every day. I write a quick blog about it, daily, with a photo, if you want to follow along and see what’s rattling around in my brain. It’s over at my RunRunLive website.

It’s fun. I take Buddy the old wonder dog with me for the first 2 miles on the trails then I go back out for another loop to make up the 5. He seems to be handling it well. On the weekends I still get out but I freelance a bit, throwing in some longer runs with Ryan on Sunday. I’m doing as much trails as possible.

For Section one and section two today we are going to give you my Kettletown 50K race report. It was, of course, close to 20 minutes long, so I spilt it into two pieces and bookended the interview with it. Like a serial, right? Build some tension and anticipation, right?

I read too much. Really. When you read too much the words start to seep out of your brain like coffee through the seams of a carboard cup. They find their way out.

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Matt Dunlap

Matt Dunlap Age 44 from St. Peters, Missouri. Husband and father of two. I completed the marathonBQ plan while working full time for the Boeing Co. in St. Louis. My background as an athlete: Never did run in school. I was a baseball kid. Started running in my 30s to lose weight picked up over the years. Started running long distance in 2016 and completed the BQ plan in May of 2017 (2nd marathon). Looking forward to my first trip to Bean Town and running the Boston Marathon in 2018! https://www.strava.com/athletes/19203695

Here’s the first email I got from Matt when he crashed in his first Marathon try…

Chris! Just finished listening to your Marathon BQ book today. I am SO motivated right now, and ready to start training, but unfortunately it's not time... yet... A little more background about myself: I'm 44 (as of yesterday) I've been a casual runner for over ten years. Ran my first race (10k) last 4th of July and been wanting "more" ever since... Ran a couple more 10k's this year, then decided to "try" a marathon which took place 8 days ago. My intention when I first committed to it was to just be able to say I did it. I had been listening to your podcast all the while (for over a year). I used a marathon plan that came with my runkeeper app. I had no intention of qualifying for Boston; it was never on my radar. But when I got several weeks into my training, and only had trouble hitting my workout goals when it was 90+ degrees out there, I started to think "maybe I could actually qualify for Boston?" I worked my butt off, never missed a workout for the last 10 weeks of that plan (plan goal was a 3:30 marathon). I knew that my gps was cutting a lot of my corners off as a ran my routes and wondered exactly how much better my "real" pace was than what I was reading on my phone (and/or watch). I told myself on race day, I would just settle into a comfortable effort level and see what happens... I am sending you three images that will basically tell you the story of the race. When you see the pics, from mile three and from mile 25, I'm sure you'll get the big picture, along with the image that shows my split times. In order for me to get a BQ, I had to finish in less than 3:15. I had it in my grasp but it slipped away in the last 10k. That's a bit of irony because for years I have always topped out at 6 miles or so on my workouts. But this last 10k of the marathon kicked my ass (last 3 miles were 9+ min/mi). Now I'm on a mission and I can't wait to get to the track! I just need to decide if I'm going to try a spring or a fall race next year. I love this book! -matt dunlap in St. Peters, MO

Finished 3:20:50 ish... more details to come. Everyone ran extra 4/10 mile because the first turn wasn't marked! Hopefully 4 minutes is enough to get into Boston.

…

Matt did you stick to the plan note for note? Referring specifically to the three weekly 5 mile recovery runs

...

Matt N Kim Dunlap Yes, I followed it almost exactly as written. I did improvise some workouts though during the extra four weeks after the first race was cancelled. I lost about 8 lbs during the process too.

Matt N Kim Dunlap When I got into the 20 plus mile runs, I started around 8 min miles for 5 or 6 miles then gradually increased to my goal pace of 7:2x. One day I felt really good and kept going to 26.2 and averaged 7:33. That was three weeks before the race

…

Section two – More Kettletown

Outro

Ok my beautiful, fit and fast friends. Do you have the grit to get through a training plan, stay healthy and hit that staring line with gusto? Maybe, maybe not, but you have hung in there through the end of episode 4-367 of the RunRunLive podcast. Congratulations.

Did you see that lady from Oklahoma who won Comrades? Great article. She says she has 2 craft beers during every race. Not 3, not 1, 2. That’s enough to get her head and body in the zone. I wonder why that’s not considered doping?

I tagged a brief audio at the end of the show from Duane who is looking for people to go run an eclipse run with him. Once in a lifetime event.

Next week I’m going to have a chat with Julia who has a very interesting story of how life changed for her and she ended up finding herself in endurance running.

I also am in conversations with the anxiety guy, Tim, to do an interview about the interconnection between exercise and anxiety.

I’m going to keep curating older episodes onto the members feed as well.

Avocados. Do you like avocados? Avocados are interesting. They are native to the Americas. They are actually considered a berry with a single seed botanically. I like avocados. I have one in my salad most days. Healthy fat.

A couple interesting things. First, avocados should not exist. They evolved the way they are to be eaten whole by megafauna. Wooly mammoths, giant sloths and wooly rhinos. The megafauna would eat the avocado in one big gulp, swallow them and drop them with a bit of fertilizer some distance off. That was the avocado survival strategy. Doesn’t work well when all the megafauna are gone.

But along came humans and took a fancy to the poor avocado. We cultivated them and developed them into the current smaller seed, lots of meat form they currently have.

Did you know there is now an injury called ‘avocado hand’ that is so common among millennials that it is an official medical term? It’s when you cut your hand trying to open an avocado with a knife.

You can see how to open an avocado on YouTube. I use a modified approach where I cut it into 4 sections, then separate, then the skin just peels off like a ripe banana.

Avocados have a perfect ripeness you have to catch them at. You want them to be ripe but not mushy. When you buy them leave 1 or 2 out on the counter to ripen, leave the rest in the fridge. They ripen fast. If it gets ripe and you’re not ready to use it, stick it in the fridge.

Also, if you don’t want to eat the whole think you can put lemon juice on the exposed flesh of the leftovers to keep them from going brown in the fridge.

Hello my friends, and welcome to episode 4-366 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

366 Podcasts. If you’re new to the show that means you could listen to one of the old shows every day for a year, even a leap year, to catchup. And, assuming I haven’t thrown in the towel, you’ll still be 25 episodes behind.

It’s in our nature as endurance athletes to just keep moving forward. I do believe there is some innate value in that attribute of dogged persistence. What do you think? Are people too quick to ‘Pivot’ in these Silicon days?

Silicon days. Kinda sounds like Halcyon Days. Do you know what that means? You may have heard that phrase “Halcyon Days” used by people whose parents spent too much on a Liberal Arts Degree as referring to a happier time in the past.

It really means more of a calm time. It means a time where winds don’t blow. It’s from Greek mythology. 10 words or less. Alcyone was turned into a sea bird. Aeolus becalmed the waves for 7 days each year so she could make her nest. Ok that was 21 words and a number.

‘Silicon Days’ also makes me think of irony. Many classic SciFi stories are about humans being devastated by a silicon-based life form. From where I’m sitting, we may have manifested this already, right?

Enough rhyming games. What about endurance sports do we have to share today?

Today we talk to Nick about his new enterprise Impact Marathons. He Skype called me from Greece where he was staying with his uncle Nick, his cousins, Nick, Nick and Nicki. Sorry couldn’t resist.

Nick has an interesting story. He ditched a lucrative banking career at an early age and now sets up these experiential, socially impactful marathons in remote and beautiful places. I wanted to dive into why someone would do that. Why would you give away all your stuff, live out of a couple duffle bags and lead this nomadic lifestyle in pursuit of a big dream?

Sounds fulfilling, romantic and terrifying at the same time.

In section one I’ll address a question people have asked me about what to do when your next training cycle isn’t going to start for a couple weeks or months?

In section two I’ll talk about anxiety.

Speaking of the old shows, I’ve gone back in time and downloaded a few to listen to. Those first 80 shows are rough. I was on a schedule of pushing a show out a week and keeping it under an hour. The early audio is poor. I was using a cheap USB mic.

That being said there was a certain hopefulness and creativity to them that is fun to listen to. I’m going to start editing up some of them and curating them into the members feed. I know when I subscribe to a new podcast and see there are 300 shows, I don’t go back to the beginning. I may cherry pick by topic. I’m going to do some cherry picking of my own from the archives for my members.

Members, I truly appreciate you support. This has never been a commercial endeavor for me. It’s a passion project. My favorite thing is when I get a membership notice from someone I’ve never interacted with before and they say something like ‘I’ve been listening for years and you’ve really helped me with my running and my life’. That keeps me moving forward. Even when the days are not so Halcyon.

Teresa and I did end up driving down to CT for that trail race last weekend. I’ve got my notes down but haven’t had time to write them up. I will. I’ll probably push it as a separate piece because those race reports tend to go long.

Summary is, we had a good day. She ran the 20K like a champ and I ran the 50k like a stubborn old guy. Felt fine. No issues. My engine is good and my legs are good, I’m just a bit at loose ends with nothing to train for.

…

I finished reading a book called “Rebel without a crew” by Robert Rodriguez. He is a director. He made one of my favorite movies ‘Desperado’ with Antonio Banderas.

It’s a really good story. It is his journals from when he made his first movie El Mariachi for $7,000. He did it with no crew. It ended up making him the toast of Hollywood.

The basic story is that as a kid all he ever wanted to do was to make movies. So he made movies with his brothers and sisters as actors and videotape. He didn’t get good enough grades to get into film school, because, he spent all his time making movies.

He didn’t have any money so he went into one of those research hospitals to make $3,000 as a clinical trial lab rat. He used that money and figured out how to make a feature length movie as an experiment in Mexico for the Spanish video market. That was El Mariachi.

His plan was to make all his mistakes on this movie, sell it to the video distributers for a small profit and make a series of these as he learned that trade. Essentially throw-away movies. Then when he had enough experience he would approach the Hollywood crowd.

Long story, short, El Mariachi got noticed in Hollywood, starting a feeding frenzy that got him a deal at Columbia and won Sundance.

What’s great about this story is several things. First, he worked very hard over many years to put himself in a position to succeed. A splendid example of grit.

He also had the growth mindset going into this that he would make a movie, learn what he could in the process, not worry so much about failure and just do it. Take action. Learn from the results.

It’s a classic Horatio Alger, rags to riches, very American in nature.

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

Voices of reason – the conversation

The Impact Marathon Series are races for those who think differently, run for the good of others and dream they can leave an impact.

Founded in 2015 by Nick Kershaw and Matt Fenton, IMS organizes races in four developing locations: Nepal, Malawi, Colombia and Guatemala.

Like many more mainstream marathon companies IMS encourage runners to fundraise beforehand. However they ask runners to raise funds for one of the United Nations’ Global Goals directly relating to the location of their race – for example, charities focusing on Gender Equality in Nepal.

Runners then fly out to the race location a week before the marathon and complete two days of voluntary work directly relating to their selected Global Goal – in the above case, for example, providing support in a Nepalese burns unit. By doing so, participants get to see exactly how their fundraising helps and even get involved themselves via aid-work, thereby making a direct impact.

IMS aims to provide a synthesis between travel, running and voluntary work. By harnessing the power of running they believe runners can make a real difference to the developing world.

City-worker turned Social Entrepreneur with a penchant for travel, running and creating positive impact. He has spent the last living entirely nomadically, with just two bags for company. In this time he founded the Impact Marathon Series: a social business that harnesses the power of running to empower communities, runners and tackle the UN Global Goals.

The Impact Marathon dream combines travel, volunteering and running to bring about social change. In their first year they began races in Nepal, Colombia, Malawi, Guatemala & Kenya. They bring 120 people from all over the globe, representing a variety corporates, NGOs and running clubs to each race. They all live together in the Athletes' Village whilst heading out each day to work at the exact projects they have fundraised for...

They want to create a direct link to your fundraising so you can see, feel and understand the impact you have.

The best bit, on the final day of Impact Week, everyone joins together with the surrounding communities to run a tough trail race, with most stunning backdrops you can imagine!

Outro

Ok my long suffering friends that is it, you have dug water pipe ditches and built out-buildings for the marginalized 3rd-world poor through to the end of episode 4-366 of the RunRunLive Podcast, and then you ran a slow marathon to celebrate.

Yes I did run a 50K a couple weeks ago. Like I said, I have my notes, I just have to write it up. Other than being slow – took me 7 hours – it was a pleasant experience all around. I know, you’re all going to divorce me if I don’t start doing something interesting!

We are rolling into June this week and we’ve had the oddest spring weather up here in New England. It’s been 40’s and 50’s and overcast and rainy like Seattle or London for most of May. I’m not complaining. It’s great running weather. I can’t remember a spring where I was able to get so much use out of my old Boston Marathon running jacket. Not to run in, just to wear out.

Usually we go from 45 to 90 and it stays there. We don’t have these extended periods of cooler weather. It’s been great for my apple trees. They flowered and since it wasn’t hot they kept the flowers for more than a week. Now there are hundreds of little apples on them. I didn’t get my garden in until just this past weekend.

I’m starting a new project for June that I’m calling 5 at 5. I’m going to get up at 5 AM 30 Days and run 5 miles. The getting up early isn’t the hard part for me. It’s going to take a while or my body to get with the program of rolling out of bed and hitting the trails. My body would rather have coffee and oatmeal and a bathroom break.

I’m taking Buddy with me for the first 2 miles and I’ll try to take a photo every day in the same place to get a time lapse. With any luck we’ll get to see summer break like a wave over these few weeks.

This will help me stay in shape during June and will take less time out of my week than my normal training routine so I can get more stuff done.

Let me tell you a couple stories from the past couple weeks.

The first one is my mailbox story. This winter the snow plows took out my mail box. I wasn’t able to fix or replace it with the ground frozen and I propped it up with some bailing wire and a metal stake. Now that it’s warmer I needed to fix it because it frankly looked shoddy.

But before I could fix the mailbox I needed to fix my wheelbarrow. So, really this is my Mailbox/Wheelbarrow story.

I had a great big metal wheelbarrow that I had acquired many years ago. A few years back one of its staves broke. That is the proper term for a wheelbarrow handle, ‘stave’. Me, being the impatient man that I am bought a new wheelbarrow.

I soon discovered that the quality of wheelbarrows has plummeted in the intervening time and this new wheelbarrow was crap. Very low quality.

After I worked that new wheelbarrow into the ground I decided to fix the old one this year. I measured everything up and was able to procure the correct length staves on Amazon.

I had to spend a few hours getting the old rusted bolts out of the old wheelbarrow and buying the proper inventory of new nuts and bolts.

The new staves were the right length and of reasonably good quality. But the holes were in the wrong places. For the life of me I could not find my electric drill. And I did end up buying a new electric drill on Amazon. (I have since threatened my wife and children with painful and horrible death if they touch my new drill) Change that to the mailbox/wheelbarrow/drill story.

I was able to find the full set of wood bits that I needed for the drill to drill the holes in the staves so that I could reassemble the wheelbarrow with the new hardware.

And it’s a thing of beauty.

Then I went down to see if I couldn’t dig up the roots of the old mailbox so I could drop a new one in.

It turns out that whoever put that mailbox in wanted it to stay there. It was clasped on all sides by granite shards that I had to dig around and manually remove with my hands. You see I had to dig about surgically as to not destroy the well-established lilies, clematis and irises flourishing there.

I got all the pieces of the old mailbox out, measured it up. checked the official postal regulations online and headed off to one of the giant home improvement stores.

These mailbox posts come as one preassembled thing that you just stick in the ground so I thought I was close to the finish line.

However when I made my pilgrimage up and down the aisles and to where the post box posts were I was disappointed, ne thwarted. They had two posts. Both of such poor quality as to be embarrassing.

Instead I hiked the extra kilometer down to the lumber section and procured a couple 8 foot pressure treated 4 by 4’s. So, I guess this is the mail box/wheelbarrow/drill/post story…

Anyhow I was able to find my table saw and I crafted a beautiful post box post I set it nicely back into the ground with the granite chunks at the official height from the curb. I then gave the box itself a new coat of matt black paint.

I have to tell you, it’s a thing of beauty. There is nothing as life affirming to your suburban male then to be able to craft something with your own hands and have it actually end well.

So those of you who have significant others who roll their eyes when you ask them to do some simple task – remember in suburbia there is no such thing as a simple task, but there is a job well done.

Hello my friends, this is Chris, your host, and welcome to episode 4-365 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we chat with our friend Steve Hailstone about his experience as a runner having a heart attack.

I wanted to get Steve on and talk through his experience because I thought we might be able to save some lives. Seriously. It’s well known that we endurance athletes think that we are indestructible. This is not the case. We are typically healthier and fitter over the long arc of our lives but we are still susceptible to the same risks everyone else is, including heart disease.

In section one I talk about how it’s not that much of a leap to go from a marathon to an ultra and give you some thoughts on how to do that. In section two I talk about how we get into and out of mental slumps.

One of the things about mental slumps, whether you are religious or not, is the concept of will. You have free will. You are free to think what you want. With the free will comes the responsibility to know what it is that you are going to do with that free will. You’ve been invested with this great gift. It’s up to you to Use it.

It’s been a couple weeks since we last talked. I believe I was headed into Groton Road Race Weekend last time we talked. We got a beautiful spring day. The races went off without a hitch.

Since I was not race director this year I had the choice of either running in the morning at 6:00 AM with the race director’s cut of the race (that I invented 10 years ago!) or actually running the race itself. The 10k goes off in the early afternoon.

I couldn’t really decide. Then I had a brain storm that I would just run both! Of course when I told the other folks in the club this they all rolled their eyes and told me they knew I was going to do both all along.

Since we opted to hold the race on the 30th we were a week or so later in the spring. It really made a difference. The course was beautiful. That extra week allowed the course to green up just enough. Groton is a really pretty town.

Coming out of a strong spring cycle and not really going hard at Boston I was able to perform well in both of my 10K’s. Maybe I’ll invent a new thing – the Groton Double.

Still I was a bit beat up after doing all that manual work setting up the race and racing twice over the weekend. Monday I felt a bit like I should have more naps in my life. I’m a white collar worker and it made me consider that I’m getting soft. I need more general labor in my life.

After Groton, I wanted to start in with the mountain climbing plan that Teresa and I came up with. Unfortunately, I didn’t calculate that you can’t really get into the White Mountains of New Hampshire until June. You can get into them, but only if you’re going to be skiing! Washington still has 30 feet of snow in Tuckerman’s ravine! It’s a very dangerous time to hike.

I’ve just been doing a lot of trail running and trying to stay fit. I’ve been taking Teresa out with me when I can and we signed up for a race this weekend in CT that I will talk more about in the outro.

…

One of the books I’m reading is “The Magic of Thinking Big!” By David Swartz. This is a classic breathless self-help book from 1959. It’s great. It’s full of all the old-timey storytelling and phraseology of the era. It’s basically a self-authored book from this guy’s speeches and programs that went viral in those days.

One of the quaint things he talks about is people who are suffering from ‘excusitis’. Everyone has an excuse as to why they can’t be successful or live the life they want. They are too old, or too young, or under-educated, or inexperienced. He calls this excusitis!

He talks about how that’s all in your head and how to flip it over and make those excuses strengths. He talks about what I would call ‘feeding the good dog’ – meaning reinforcing those positive thoughts so your subconscious acts on them.

I also read through a series of early excerpts on government. You might wonder why. One of my daughters was recycling some text books and one of them was “The Great Works” a bit of a survey on great writing. I rescued it. (I always have 3-4 books going at a time)

I read Aristotle on why government is not what we want but a natural emergence of a bargain to trade independence for security.

I read Thomas Hobbes on the natural rights of man, written in the 1600’s, and then the Declaration of Independence that cribs heavily from that with its rights to ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

Of course, they never meant total equality. They meant political equality. To get to total equality you’d have to force everyone to a middle state by hobbling the exceptional and lifting the less exceptional and this would bring civilization to a grinding halt.

That’s the dynamic we still work with today. Where do we draw that line between independence and equality?

I also read a piece by Alexis de Tocqueville on how Americans are never happy with what they have. That is true. It’s our strength and our weakness.

As I get older I am getting better at being happy with what I have. Even in stressful times I’m quite content. I picked up an old notebook and found that I had been listing things that I was grateful for as an exercise.

The first entry read,

Friends and mentors

Books

Sweat

My Daughters

My old dog Buddy

We’ve all got a lot to think about. But we’ve all got a lot to be grateful for. Feed the good dog – Fertilize the positive. What are five things that you are grateful for today?

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

Section one – Stepping up to a 50K from a marathon

Voices of reason – the conversation

Steve Hailstone

Husband and father of 3. US Air Force veteran. California native transplanted in Pennsylvania. Reconnected with running in 2012. Heart attack survivor since early 2016. Seeking to understand Insulin Resistance as related to heart disease. Recently adopted Maffetone Method of running to ensure healthy retraining of heart.

Section two – Getting out of a mental slump

Outro

Ok my friends, you have stumbled, clutching your chest, through to the end of episode 4-365 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

You may have noticed that this episode was a week late. I apologize. I’m working with a startup out of California now and my time to write and produce has been significantly impinged. I’m not traveling as much, but, paradoxically that means less writing. Planes were always my quiet space.

I may have to take a vacation from the podcast this summer, maybe just drop some ancient podcasts from the past on to the feed for a few months while I get some breathing room.

Teresa and I are heading down to Connecticut tomorrow to run a trail race. She’s going to do her first trail race and her first ½ marathon distance. I’m going to attempt the 50K. I don’t have a CT marathon yet and I was a bit at loose ends so I jumped on this. We’ll see how it goes.

Although the New England weather made its traditional leap from 50 to 95 in one day this week, it’s only going to be in the 70’s tomorrow. It looks like a nice 10K loop course with some technical bits and a lot of elevation. I’m just planning to hike it. Would be thrilled to get in under 7 hours. It will be my first 50K.

I’m thinking about taking a step back from racing and training this summer. I’m leaning towards doing a 30 day program of just running 5 miles in the woods every morning for breakfast. I think it would be a nice challenge and give me some more free time to boot.

I carted my old motorcycle out to the Honda fix-er-up place this week. Had to roll it into the back of my truck and strap it in – which was a bit dicey. I made the service managers day dragging in a 33 year old motorcycle – seriously, they were excited to work on it.

So my friends, as we roll into the dog days of summer. What are your plans? What great mountains are you going to climb? What fabled beasts are you going to slay? What frozen hearts are you going to melt?

Think about it. Send me an audio. I’ll play it if it isn’t too horrible.

I had some Silicon Valley type ask me in a meeting “If you had all the money in the world, what would you do?” Not sure what that self-important prick, sorry did I say that out loud? I’m not sure what my west coast brother was looking to elucidate, but my answer was that I’d drop everything and run across the country.

But, I’d like to add to that answer. I’d drop everything and grab a bunch of my friends and run across the country!

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening my friends. Are you out on that early morning trail? Or maybe the warm sunshine of a lunch-time trot? Perhaps the star filled purity of a speedwork session at the track at night?

Wherever, whenever, you may be, Hello my friends and welcome to Episode 4-364 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we chat with Steve Spear, not Steve Speirs of the 100 pushups app who we interviewed in episode 108 of the podcast, must’ve been the winter of 2008-2009. BTW all those old episodes are on my website at RunRunLive.com.

I’m going to go listen to some of them myself and see if there isn’t something interesting that I can curate for the members feed. It’s bit surreal listening to yourself from the past. Time truly is a river.

Today we are also going to squeeze in the 2017 Boston Marathon race report. I think. It’s not the most exciting story ever told but it has become a tradition now. I think this will be the 9th Boston report that we have shared together. We started with my 10th Boston back in 2008.

What a long strange trip it’s been.

Anyhow – since the race report is long – I’ll just jump right into our interview with Steve Spear who ran across the USA to help get clean water to families in Africa. You’ll hear me asking about how he did this because unlike Pete Kostelnik Steve ran the cross country route at a reasonable pace of 5 days a week and 35 miles a day. I could see myself doing that.

I’ll stick the race report in after that and we’ll call it a day. My Friday’s have become increasingly pressed for time but I’ll persevere!

I took Tuesday, Wednesday off last week after the race. I dug my old steel Fuji out, sprayed some petrochemicals on the chain and gears, pumped up the tires and went for a ride Thursday out to the rail trail. That felt nice.

I went for a run in the woods in the drizzle and dark with Teresa on Friday for an hour and felt fine. It was nice to run with her. Kinda cool getting to talk in a relatively neutral setting.

Saturday I met up with the running club to pick up litter on the Groton Road Race course. Sunday I got to join the club run in the morning and it was good to not have to worry about a long workout. The marathon gave me a lot of stress this year and I’m happy to have it in my rearview mirror.

Tuesday morning I got up and went for a run in the woods. It was grey and overcast and easing into a patient drizzle. I brought Buddy, the old Wonder dog for the first 20- minutes or so then went back out and did another hour.

There is something so peaceful and centering for me to run this loop. Right outside my front door. Right on the other side of my vegetable garden is the trail head.

Buddy and I cut these trails. There was nothing here except bulldozer roads and animal tracks when we moved in. It was slated to be house lots. Over the years it became conservation land instead. Now, my house is the last on the cul-de-sac with conservation land on three sides.

The woods have not yet exploded in green. We are in the April showers phase. But, you can sense the arboreal tension in the woods. Like a pensive skeleton waiting, on edge for the new leaves to burst forth.

Hen turkeys, with beautiful sheens of reflecting feathers dart across the trail looking for the perfect place to raise this year’s brood. Wood ducks bob on the gun-metal grey undulations of the pond. All are ready. We see the grey skeleton of winter. They sense the green wealth of spring.

…

Met the club on Saturday to pick up trash on the Groton Road Race course. We spent a few hours and got 2 full truckloads of litter off the roads. I suppose the most interesting thing I found was a plastic sandwich baggie with “Black Plague” and skull and crossbones written on it with a sharpie.

What do you think? Some parent with a nerdy kid and questionable sense of humor making lunch? Or more probably an empty bag of a high-powered weed? Or, you never know, I’m now patient zero of the zombie apocalypse like I always assumed I’d be.

Mostly it was Bud Light cans. And flavored vodka nips. The engineer in me wants to plot the beer can and vodka bottle distribution, do a regression analysis and lead an intervention to someone’s door in Groton. Or just wait at the liquor store with an officer and some handcuffs.

I guess if you are drinking on the way to work every day littering is pretty low on your list of worries.

But, like spring, the road is clean and ready for the racers. We’re going to have a great day. I’m no longer Race Director so I think I may actually run the 10K!

That’s the way life is. Life is change. Life is winter. Life is spring. As Oprah says, we aren’t getting older, we’re evolving!

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

About Steve Spear

In 2013 Steve Spear, Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, ran from LA to NY to bring clean water to children and families in Africa. Steve roughly averaged a marathon a day for 150 days straight. His run took him through 10 pair of running shoes and 14 states.

Steve Spear is an honors graduate of Ozark Christian College in Joplin, MO. He led at senior levels at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL for over 15 years in a variety of pioneering efforts. As a Team World Vision Volunteer Running Ambassador Steve has completed numerous marathons, ultra marathons, a 2013 transcontinental run from LA to NY and personally raised over $500,000 for clean water in Africa. Steve and his wife Frances, of 28 years, have two grown children and reside in Carol Stream, IL.

About the Global 6k for Water

Steve Spear, Running Ambassador at World Vision is encouraging runners and churches around the U.S. to take part in the Global 6k for Water. 6 kilometers is the average distance that people in the developing world walk for water — water that is often contaminated with life-threatening diseases. From fast runners to leisurely walkers, thousands of people will unite around the globe and run 6km to bring clean water to communities in need. Each participant's registration of $50 goes to World Vision's Water Initiatives. After you register you will receive a World Vision Global 6K for Water t-shirt, race bib, and medal in the mail. Map out a 6km route in your neighborhood or attend a bigger gathering at a host site on Saturday, May 6th, 2017. More information is available at: http://www.teamworldvision.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.event&eventID=848&referrer=media

Section two

Boston Race Report -

Outro

Ok my friends, you have run slowly across the country and through the hills of Newton to the end of episode 4-364 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

I’m running the Groton Road Race this weekend and the, just like that, it will be May already! I’ve got to peel off some time to get my vegetable garden started!

I’ve been trying to get my old motorcycle on the road. I got it registered but ran into a bit of a snag last night. I put a new battery in an n no power! Now I’m going to have to chase around the wiring diagram with my multimeter and see if it’s a fuse or a short or a ground… sigh… I’m not really designed with the patience for that.

I went and gave blood this week. They’ve been pestering me but I needed to get through the marathon first. My vital signs are all fantastic. I had to do the mind control thing to jack my HR up over 50 for the nurse so I could avoid the red flags. It took a awhile but they were able to get my blood out of me.

They have this sound track of 70’s pop music that they play and it is a bit surreal. I hear those songs and I remember specific situations, where I was. For example building a fort in the rafters of my father’s garage with my buddy Dave as pre-teens listening to “Ricky don’t lose that number” by Steely Dan on the portable FM radio on a warm summer day in 1974. Us with our Mad Magazines and Farah Faucett posters.

Now I’ve got to figure out what I want to do with this glorious summer laying before me like an unwrapped gift. So far all I’ve committed is to climb some mountains with Teresa. But, soon enough I’ll get the itch. I do love trail running. I think I’ll do some more of that.

What’s next?

I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with my life forever. There’s no silver bullets. Sometimes you have the opportunity to choose epic and worthy things that in some way define you and in other ways demonstrate a worthy path to endeavors to the world. Sometimes circumstances knock you sideways and that unchosen path becomes the worthy thing.

Every day, every mile, you get up. Whether your plan for that day works or something else happens you grind on with as much aplomb and reason as you can. Then you get up and do it again. Someday the crumbs of your life might lead someone else to something worthy for them.

And that’s it, my friends. Whether you think you are a leader or even an exemplar, people are watching you, the universe is watching you, get up and get it done today.

Hello my friends and welcome to Episode 4-363 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Come on over here and let me pet you. Wait, no that’s inappropriate, what I mean is today we are talking dogs and running and books with Lauren Fern Watts, whose book “Gizelle’s Bucket List” I had the pleasure of reading recently.

As is my habit I called her up and asked for an interview. Great story. Starving artist who went viral and got a book deal.

As we speak I am two days out from the my 19th Boston Marathon. I am healthy and well trained and I’ve managed to hold my…shtuff together during the taper. I’ll head into the expo tomorrow. To pick up my stuff. It’s funny, I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even opened the race material they sent me a couple weeks ago!

Imagine that. Some day you may become so jaded with your marathoning that you don’t even look at the race packet! Yikes! I used to be like a kid at Christmas when that showed up!

In section one I’ve got a piece on tapering. In section two I’ll talk about algorithms . Yeah, algorithms. What can I say, I have a diverse set of interests.

Haven’t been doing much except working over the last couple weeks since we last talked. I nailed that last long workout. 22+ miles with 90 minutes of it at race pace minus 20 seconds. A real monster. Hopefully I didn’t leave my race out there!

Since we’re on the dog topic…my old friend Buddy is doing well. He’ll still join me out in the woods for a 20 minute trot if I take it super slow. His back hips bother him. He’s got the classic collie dysplasia and arthritis. And he’s got lumps. Lots of lumps. Lovely Buddy lumps.

He loves to cuddle and hug and have his butt rubbed. He has this brief moment of activitiy in the morning where he’s up and wants to go out at 6:00AM and then it quite ornery for a couple hours. In and out, barking at the woods, barking at the walkers, barking at nothing in particular.

Sometimes he’ll just stand in the front yard and bark at the door until I come out. Like he’s saying “What’s wrong with you man? Can’t you see it’s a beautiful day? Let’s go!” But, he doesn’t have to pay the bills!

…

It’s spring. The tress are getting ready to explode. I’ll have to get out and clean the yard and get my garden going soon. I always start the year with such grand aspirations. Then I give up on weeding by August.

I went into Boston this week to see a gathering of robotics startups. There were a couple of industrial robots that were cool. There were robotic bicycles. There was a thing like a segue but you sat down on it. There was a mouse-sized robot that scooted around under your furniture to clean the hardwood floors.

And there was a gardening robot to kill weeds! I’m not sure if it would handle the weeds in my garden but they are heading in the right direction!

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

Section one –

Voices of reason – the conversation

Hi, I’m Lauren! I’m an author and travel journalist splitting my time between Nashville and Los Angeles. My first book, Gizelle’s Bucket List, comes out March 7, 2017 with Simon & Schuster. To learn more about the book click here, or to meet me on tour click here.

I was born March 6,1989 in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in the suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee. Traveling is one of my greatest passions, and my travel travails have included riding a camel named Booboo through the Sahara desert, bungee jumping off the tallest bridge in South Africa, exploring the colorful streets of Varanasi, and finding the most magical bookstore in Paris. But perhaps my biggest adventure of all happened when I was twenty-three, and packed up my life in Tennessee to move to the middle Times Square with my big English Mastiff, Gizelle. You can read all about that here.

I worked in fashion and travel PR in New York City, where I represented a number of hotel and travel-industry clients by day, and took writing classes at night. I’ve been a student at MatadorU, school for Travel Journalism, Photography, and Filmmaking, as well as Gotham Writers’ Workshop. When I’m not writing, I’m training for her next marathon or adventuring around California with my rescue dog named Bette. I’m an ambassador for Shatterproof, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping families who struggle with addiction, and I currently reside in Los Angeles.

Section two

Outro

All right my friends you have trotted on your four feet, with your tail between your legs to the end of Episode 40363 of the RunRunLive podcast. Don’t forget to sniff the flowers and mark the trees.

You won’t hear from me again until after Boston. Looks like the weather is going to be decent. We’ll see what I can come up with.

I don’t lose much sleep over it anymore but I have been sporting a rather attractive cold sore for the last two weeks so there is some sort of stress I’m sublimating. Will be nice to have the pressure off and get back to some casual, enjoyful running.

I’ve watched a few movies over the last month or so. Some odd ones. As I get older I’m more interested in odd movies. I watched Swiss Army Man with Harry Potter playing a farting, magical corpse. Quite a fun and interesting movie. It all makes sense at the end.

I watched half of The Lobster which is a bizarre, deadpan, UK art project that is just on the edge of being hilariously funny, but never goes there.

On the serious side I watched half of Manchester by the Sea with Casey Affleck. I thought the portrayal of Massachusetts Townie culture was spot on. It’s a bit depressing though.

My wife and I watched HackSaw Ridge. Very good movie. Very long movie. Typical Mel Gibson fare – he wasn’t in it but he made the movie. Similar to “When we were Soldiers” in tone and morality.

My daughter and I watched Moana – the animated Disney movie about Polynesian adventure and demi-gods. The Rock plays the comic relief demi-god Maui and he does a great job. Classic Disney. They must be running out of cultures to exploit…

Finally I watched “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and I really enjoyed it. Very well acted and the visuals were great.

See – I do other things besides training!

You still have time to contribute to my Team Hoyt fund for this year’s race. I just dropped a video with the links to my social media – cold sore and all!

I went by Starbucks today on the way into my office. There’s one in the next town over that I used to be a regular at. They built one in my town so I don’t go one town over much anymore. There’s a lady who works there who remembers me and my order. She hasn’t seen me more than 2 times in the last 6 months and she remembers me.

Episode Boston 2017 – A preview of the Boston Marathon with Coach

Folks, Friends, Marathon-wonks, this is a chat I had with my coach today about this year’s Boston Marathon, my training and what to expect. I wanted to get something out to those of you who might find the information useful before race weekend.

Hello my friends and welcome to Episode 4-362 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Chris here. I am criminally behind in my production schedule. As some of you may have divined, especially those of you on LinkedIn, I changed gigs over the last couple months and am now back in startup land. It’s not my startup, but still the the urgency and lack of resources spills over.

That combined with being in my last few weeks of marathon training for Boston creates less space and opportunity to write and record.

The company is out of Silicon Valley, (of course), and I’m out of Boston so there’s a 3-hour time change. Even thought you’d think you’d be able to adjust your work days, it always seems to add 3 or more hours to the day.

It reminds me of when I had a job where I had to contend with Boston’s infamous traffic. I devised a plan to go in a couple hours early to beat the traffic and then leave a couple hours early on the back end of the day to beat the traffic again. What really ended up happening was I’d go in early, get caught up in the day, and end up going home late after the traffic.

I’m sure there’s some math we could use there to make everyone’s lives simpler. The way we have arranged it everyone’s whims always line up. For example, let’s say you’re sitting at work on a warm Friday in June and you think “I know, I’ll leave early and get a jump on driving to the Cape for the weekend!” You can bet that there are a couple hundred thousand people having that same thought at that same time and you will be soon sucking C02 with them on Route 6.

I’m sure all of this will be solved when the impartial Artificial Intelligence of the robot overlords takes over. But, will we miss it? Will we someday be writing long, sorrowful poems in praise of a good traffic jam? How it brought our families together and made the fabric of society stronger?

How did I get down this rat hole?

Oh, yeah. It’s Saturday Morning and It’s snowing. It’s been snowing for 24 hours and it’s April first. Last time we got this kind of spring weather two weeks before the Boston Marathon was 2006. It ended up being 85 degrees at the starting line that year.

Today I bring you a RunRunLive podcast exclusive. An interview with Rick Hoyt. Rick has run almost twice as many Boston marathons as I have and I’m running my 19th this year. I am thrilled to be able to ask him questions directly.

My favorite Hoyt story is how Dick and Rick pushed their way into the Boston Marathon. The Boston Athletic Association of the late 1970’s would not be considered an ‘open-minded’ organization. They were steadfast in their belief that the Boston Marathon was a traditional race. You had to qualify. You had to be a man. You had to pass a physical and be a ‘real’ able-bodied athlete to get in.

Dick tried to get in and they wouldn’t let him. They thought they had a good barrier to entry that he wouldn’t be able to get over. They told him that he had to qualify, not only in his age group, but in Rick’s age group as well. At the time this meant Dick had to run better than a 2:50 marathon with Rick.

Dick didn’t whine about it. He didn’t sue them. Instead he trained and ran a 2:45 qualifying race pushing Rick. This was before racing chairs existed. This was before the first running boom. These guys were breaking new ground. They were all alone. Their dogged persistence, their unassuming commitment to the sport, their grit earned them a spot on the starting line in Hopkinton.

The way they did it also earned the respect of the running world and opened a door for a generation of runners. They were pioneers who caused change. They caused change by living that change.

So that’s the context of our interview today.

In section one I’ll go deep into how I do a pace run on the treadmill. In section two, I’m going to give you an audio recording of the 2nd most read blog post I ever wrote, a chapter from my first book, called “Running with Buddy”. This will give you a good lead in for the sentiment going into our next show which will include an interview with Luaren Fern Watts about her new book, Gizelle’s Bucket List.

After we last spoke I attempted a 22 mile tempo run on the Boston course. Frank and I did an out and back from Ashland, around mile 4, to Wellesley mile 15, right before the dip down into Newton Lower Falls. This is the so-called ‘flat’ portion of the course. I’m always surprised at just how not-flat it is. It’s rolling hills. Nothing major, but some good pulls when you’re racing.

I was rolling off a hard week with a lot of miles. The plan was to run an hour in zone 2, then drop to race pace -5 for an hour and a half then do 5 minute on/off zone 3 surges for the last half hour. My legs were heavy going in from the big week. I ran 7 miles the day before and a set of hill repeats on the Friday. It was around freezing and overcast to drizzly. We didn’t see as many runners out as we thought we might.

When we hit the hour mark I dropped into what felt like race pace to me, but my pacing ability proved to be clueless. I was shooting for around 8 minute miles but we were clocking 7:30’s and 7:40’s. At the end of each mile I’d say ‘Oh crap’ and let Frank lead for a while and we’d manage an 8:05. Then I’d drop back into the 7:30’s. It was a pacing disaster!

We hung in there trying to find race pace until around the 18 mile mark my wheels fell off. We were climbing a long hill and my legs just went dead and said ‘no mas’. This was about an hour into the pace part of the run. I let Frank go and tried to find a pace I could manage and recover a bit. I managed some to bash it out in the low 8’s with a couple of walk breaks.

I finished up with over 22 miles and over 3 hours of decent effort. I even recovered a bit in the last mile. All-in-all I wasn’t horribly disappointed. It’s another brick in the wall and a good race-specific workout and a good reminder of just how deceptively nasty that Boston course is with its constant rolling hills.

Then I jumped on a plane to Silicon Valley. Spent the week out there that nicely coincided with a rest week, although I did manage to run up a 1,500 foot mountain behind my hotel twice.

Now I’m finishing up my last hard week and tuning up for the big show. I’m off the beer and seeing how far I can get my weight down for the race, which adds to the stress of it all! I made some poor nutritional choices in Cali and have been hovering around 180, which isn’t horrible for me. This week I’ve stayed on top of it better and am down around 175.

Those 5-10 pounds make a huge difference for me on race day. Especially where my current bottleneck is my legs not my engine. Taking a few extra pounds off my quads will buy me a couple extra miles at race pace on Patriot’s day.

…

And the weather continues to not cooperate. We are in the midst of yet another storm here 2-weeks out. My day got away from me yesterday and I ended up doing a hill repeat session at dusk in the slush.

Now normal people might think, “hey, the sun is setting, it’s 33 degrees out and alternating rain and snow, I think I’ll skip that hill workout.” But, I think, “Here are the marathon gods putting another challenge in front of me. Here is another opportunity for me to rise to the occasion. To do what others will not. And that has some merit to it.

I kitted up quickly, before I lost my nerve, and headed out through the trails to a secluded road behind my house with a nice hill. The woods were quite peaceful. The snow/ice was a couple inches deep but nice and granular, like running on beach gravel. There was no wind, and it was quite beautiful with the hiss of the sleet in the tree tops.

The hill repeats themselves were a bit tricky. I had 3 sets of 5 X 40 seconds. It was snowing fairly hard. There was slush on the road. It was maybe an inch deep on the shoulders, but the tire paths from the occasional car were relatively clean with just a skim of icy slush. There were parts where the melt water was running in streams down the hill.

The question in my mind was where would I get the most traction? The tire tracks? The slush? The shoulders? I opted for the tire tracks. It was slick and I had to run a bit flat footed. I couldn’t really toe off with any vigor. The trick was to find the places where the road was cracked or lined because these irregularities provided a bit of a traction point.

When the occasional car passed, I’d drift over to the slushy shoulder mid repeat. That wasn’t bad either because there was barks and sticks and dirt under the slush on the shoulder that could give you some traction. But you had to run through the deep stuff and got much wetter feet. I switched back to my old Hokas for the outing so as not to abuse my race shoes.

And you know what? It wasn’t that bad. I got my workout done and felt like a total stud. I felt like I ‘won’ somehow.

That’s the lesson here my friends. You make your own rules in this world. Don’t let the slush storms of life cause you to miss a workout.

On with the show.

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

Section one –

Voices of reason – the conversation

The Early Years

Rick was born in 1962 to Dick and Judy Hoyt. As a result of oxygen deprivation to Rick’s brain at the time of his birth, Rick was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. Dick and Judy were advised to institutionalize Rick because there was no chance of him recovering, and little hope for Rick to live a “normal” life. This was just the beginning of Dick and Judy’s quest for Rick’s inclusion in community, sports, education and one day, the workplace.

Dick and Judy soon realized that though Rick couldn’t walk or speak; he was quite astute and his eyes would follow them around the room. They fought to integrate Rick into the public school system, pushing administrators to see beyond Rick’s physical limitations. Dick and Judy would take Rick sledding and swimming, and even taught him the alphabet and basic words, like any other child. After providing concrete evidence of Rick’s intellect and ability to learn like everyone else, Dick and Judy needed to find a way to help Rick communicate for himself.

With $5,000 in 1972 and a skilled group of engineers at Tufts University, an interactive computer was built for Rick. This computer consisted of a cursor being used to highlight every letter of the alphabet. Once the letter Rick wanted was highlighted, he was able to select it by just a simple tap with his head against a head piece attached to his wheelchair. When the computer was originally first brought home, Rick surprised everyone with his first words. Instead of saying, “Hi, Mom,” or “Hi, Dad,” Rick’s first “spoken” words were: “Go, Bruins!” The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season. It was clear from that moment on, that Rick loved sports and followed the game just like anyone else.

In 1975, at the age of 13, Rick was finally admitted into public school. After high school, Rick attended Boston University, and he graduated with a degree in Special Education in 1993. Dick retired in 1995 as a Lt. Colonel from the Air National Guard, after serving his country for 37 years.

The Beginning of Team Hoyt

In the spring of 1977, Rick told his father that he wanted to participate in a 5-mile benefit run for a Lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Far from being a long-distance runner, Dick agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair and they finished all 5 miles, coming in next to last. That night, Rick told his father, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.”

This realization was just the beginning of what would become over 1,000 races completed, including marathons, duathlons and triathlons (6 of them being Ironman competitions). Also adding to their list of achievements, Dick and Rick biked and ran across the U.S. in 1992, completing a full 3,735 miles in 45 days.

In a triathlon, Dick will pull Rick in a boat with a bungee cord attached to a vest around his waist and to the front of the boat for the swimming stage. For the biking stage, Rick will ride a special two-seater bicycle, and then Dick will push Rick in his custom made running chair (for the running stage).

Rick was once asked, if he could give his father one thing, what would it be? Rick responded, “The thing I’d most like is for my dad to sit in the chair and I would push him for once.”

The 2009 Boston Marathon was officially Team Hoyt’s 1000th race. Rick always says if it comes down to doing one race a year he would like it to be the Boston Marathon: his favorite race.

2013 was going to be Dick and Rick's last Boston Marathon together, but they were not able to finish due to the bombings. They vowed to be back in 2014 to finish "Boston Strong" with all the other runners, which they did; stopping many times along the 26.2 distance to take photos and shake hands of the many well wishers, and finishing with several of the runners from their Hoyt Foundation Boston Marathon team.

Dick and Rick will continue to do shorter distances races and triathlons together, and teammate Bryan Lyons will be taking over in pushing Rick in the 2015 Boston Marathon. Bryan and Rick ran some local races together this year, and will start training for Boston after the holidays, doing a half marathon in Carlsbad, CA in January, as well as, other local half marathons and races.

The Team Hoyt Theme Song “Run!” By the Ted Painter Band

It was written by yours truly and band members John Prunier and Kat Duffey, recorded in Nashville and Harford, CT. and performed by the Ted Painter Band.

Incidentally, I'm also a member of Team Hoyt and have been running with Nick Draper, a 27 year old man with a similar disability as Rick, for the last 3 and a half years. This will be our 4th Boston marathon and 16th marathon. We also do triathlons. If interested, you can learn more about "Team In the Nick of Time" at https://www.facebook.com/inthenickoftimeteamhoyt/

Thanks for your interest in the song, Chris.

Take care,

Ted

Section two

Running with Buddy - The Mid-Packer's Lament: A collection of running stories with a view from the middle of the pack Paperback – November 21, 2005

Outro

Alright my friends. I’m running out of daylight so I have to get this show out the door! You have slip-slided through the snow and slush to the end of episode 4-362 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Like I mentioned, next week we talk about dogs! Going to the dogs. I love my old dog.

He’s lying on the floor by the door here with me as I write. He’s bored. He’s wearing one of the ridiculous shirts Teresa bought for him.

The music in the Rick Hoyt interview today was the The Team Hoyt Theme Song “Run!” By the Ted Painter Band. I got permission to use it from Ted who also runs pushing Nick for Team Hoyt Boston Marathon team- they do sub 3 hour marathons and this will be their 3rd or 4th Boston together. It's available for download at www.tedpainterband.com as are other songs and information about the band.

To learn more about Ted and Nick search for “Team in the Nick of Time” on Facebook – or find the link in the show notes.

It was written by yours truly and band members John Prunier and Kat Duffey, recorded in Nashville and Harford, CT. and performed by the Ted Painter Band.

I just assume at this point that everyone knows what I’m talking about but I guess it wouldn’t kill me to give you a quick review. I post the text of all these shows on my website, RunRunLive.com. You can also click on the show in your podcast player and all the links and notes and text are in the actual show file.

I told you my hill-repeats-in-the-slush story. Let me tell you another story from this week where the evil gods of marathon chaos beat me.

Tuesday I had one of those 13 mile pace runs on the calendar. I had it scheduled for mid-morning. I had a gap in my schedule and weather window where it would warm up a little and before it started raining.

Of course calls got rescheduled and things went sideways and I couldn’t get out. I repositioned it for early afternoon.

The challenge for me with this kind of run is I’m looking at close to 2 full hours out on the road. It’s hard to squeeze into a day. And that 2 hours is just the running part. I should have done it early morning but I was still recovering from West Coast jet lag.

Early afternoon comes and I’m still at my desk. Now it’s getting dark and it’s raining. I’d squeeze in a regular run in these conditions but a 2 hour tempo run in the pitch black rain, not really. I didn’t have the right clothes with me or a headlamp.

But, I had a flash of inspiration. I still have the key card for the gym at my old office. I had to pick up Teresa later so I would drive to the treadmill, knock out this run and get to the train.

I ended up getting to the treadmill after 6 and had to take some potty breaks, etc. but was getting the work out done. Then around 8:00PM I’m 8 miles in, 2 miles into that last 5 hard zone 4 miles and I notice I’m the only one in there and the cleaning staff is in. I look at the clock, and I look at the cleaning lady and it turns out the gym closes at 8:00!

That was it. I got my 8 miles in and didn’t concede defeat as much as called it a draw. The evil marathon gods of entropy and chaos didn’t let me complete my planned workout, but I did get an 8 mile tempo run in. We’ll call it a tie.

Because sometimes. Even when you really hang in there. When you make the extra effort. The chaos and entropy still wins.

Hello my friends and welcome to Episode 4-361 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Chris here. I’m testing out a new recording space. It’s got a lot of hard surfaces so it might be a tad echo-ey. I’ll hang up a couple quilts and see if that softens it up. We call them quilts now, but didn’t they used to be called tapestries?

Anyway – today we have an interesting interview with Geoff from Zelus beer who I reached out to because they are apparently targeting endurance athletes. I always wondered about the connection between beer and running – and it being St. Paddy’s Day today and all…it seems appropriate.

In section one I’m going to dust off an old post I wrote on trail running. Why? Because I’ve had a rash of spam posts on my web site and all of them were in the comments of this trail running post so I took it as a sign.

In Section two I’ll share a post on Grit that I wrote a couple weeks back.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. My training has been deep into the dark place and the weather hasn’t been cooperating. It’s been cold on the weekends for my long runs and coach has been kicking the crap out of me.

I did a 14 mile run with 10 at tempo two Sunday’s ago and it was 10 degrees out with a 14 mph wind. I did another interval workout one night where I got all the weather in one workout – Freezing rain, wind, cold and blowing snow – all in the same hour.

Last Sunday I did 2:45 long run with an hour of it at tempo, again in the teens with a wind. It’s hard to get mentally geared up for these hard workouts when you’ve got the weather piling on. But it’s ok. These are the workouts that make you stronger. They make you mentally stronger and physically stronger.

One of the things that Angela Duckworth talks about in the book Grit is the question “How do you get more Grit?” and “Can you learn to be Gritty?” And it turns out the answer is yes. The science, the studies show that the way to learn how to do hard things is by practicing doing hard things.

I know that’s always been true for me. I know running has always been that hard thing for many of us.

You learn how to do hard things by doing hard things.

That’s it.

Do something hard.

On with the show.

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

Section one –

Geoffrey founded ZēLUS in January 2015 after teaching himself how to brew beer the previous year. Since that time he has completed a brewing courses in California, Massachusetts and Vermont. Geoffrey either runs, bikes or swims almost daily and has competed in a multitude of running races and triathlons over many different distances, including marathons and half ironmans. Before starting ZēLUS Geoffrey worked in the shoe industry for 12 years, where he was primarily a brand builder and product developer. He also had corporate roles in production, financial analysis and marketing. Geoffrey is originally from the UK and has experience of working in a number of international markets.

Here are a few links (sorry, there are a lot, the key ones are the website and Facebook I guess):

Section two

Outro

OK, my long suffering friends, Since it is St. Paddy’s Day maybe you have sipped a nice local craft IPA along to the finish of Episode 4-361 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

I told you I have not been racing this spring just hitting that training that the coach has been throwing over the wall. Boston is the second Monday in April and we’ll see what that brings!

The interesting thing is that I have been hitting paces on these tempo runs that I haven’t seen since 2011.

Let me back up for those of you who might not have been listening to this podcast for 10 years…After the marathon in 2011 I pulled up lame with a terrible case of plantar fasciitis that I just could not shake and I basically stopped running for 18 months. I did a lot of biking and swimming but I stopped marathon racing almost entirely.

I was just starting to train again in 2013 and we had a challenging year. Some yahoos decided to blow up the marathon and my Dad died of cancer and to be honest it knocked me sideways a bit. So, I did this Forrest Gump routine where I ran a marathon a month from the Boston Marathon 2013 to the Boston Marathon 2014, including Marine Corp and New York and one I just made up myself.

I think I may have overshot a bit because the following season I came down with this heart problem called exercise induced AFIB. That laid me low for another year until I went in and got it fixed in the spring of 2015.

Then, being the stubborn guy that I am, I started training again. But, I had lost a solid 30 seconds a mile off my marathon times to all this foolishness and trials and tribulations. I settled into a new normal and kept having adventures.

Now you’re up to speed. So here we are. 2017. Training for my 19th Boston Marathon. Guess what? I’m seeing paces that have seem to indicate that I’ve managed to get back 15 seconds of that 30 seconds I lost.

I was on the treadmill this week doing a 11 mile step up run and my zone 4 pace was 7:08 – 7:18 towards the end of that run. It looks like I have my base back, my aerobic fitness or, in layman’s terms, my engine. I’ve gotten a bit of the pace back. I don’t have any real speed but I do have some solid tempo paces.

So as you raise your green tinted Guinness tonight think about saying a short prayer for me. Pray for good weather on Patriot’s Day. Pray that I’ll be graced with the common sense not to attack the course like I did last year. Pray that I will find the courage to close those last 6 awful miles to Bolyston street.

You’d think that after all these years it would cease to scare me. But the thought of racing Boston still fills me with an awful dread because I know what it is capable of and I’ve been beaten more times then I have won.

But, also pause to think about the Grit you need to have to hang in and keep pushing through 5 years of challenge. Listen, I do this because I need to do it. It’s my passion in the true Latin sense. There is nothing that can beat you unless you let it beat you.

All it takes is grit.

I was down in Dallas last week. I came back from my early morning run and was getting some coffee in the hotel breakfast buffet. It was just me, one other lady guest and the lady working the buffet. You know, one of those self-serve areas.

The other lady guest stops the server who was going about her business, cleaning and checking, etc – and I’m thinking, “Whoop, here we go, she’s going to whine about the waffles being too salty or something…”, but no. She stops the server and says, with a big smile, “I just wanted to let you know how great a job you folks are doing with this breakfast. It is the best I’ve ever seen. I just had to let you know how great a job you’re doing…”

This is Chris. I know, you’re used to hearing my voice and may be taken aback to see it coming out of my actual face, but I wanted to talk to you. On April 17th of this year I’ll be running my 19th Boston Marathon.

My training’s going well – I should be able to give it a respectable effort.

And, of course, I’m running for Team Hoyt this year.

If you don’t know the story of the Hoyts, on a fateful day in 1979 rick Hoyt, who is about my age now and told his dad, Dick, that he wanted to run a local 5 miler. That started an amazing story of Dick pushing Rick in his wheelchair through thousands of races. Marathons, ironmans and in the process they broke barriers for the disabled in all walks of life. They became heroes to a generation of athletes.

So I’m asking for your help.

This isn’t to support me, or even the Hoyts, or even the 100’s of disabled athletes they encourage.

Well hello my friends and welcome to Episode 4-360 of the RunRunLive Podcast. This is Chris your host. That’s 360 podcasts out there over the past 8-9 years. Kind of amazing. It’s been awhile since I re-jiggered the format maybe it’s about time for some fashionable new skins or something.

I’d like to do more but there just isn’t much money in yak farming. There is plenty of money in being a hit man but I have to keep that in secret, offshore bank accounts.

Today we have a longish interview with Dan Weston who is one of our friends from the UK. We talk through his running adventures.

In section one I’ve got a piece on some of the finer nuances of hill repeats. In section two I’ve got a thoughtful piece on ‘hope’ that has been kicking around in my brain for about a decade so I’m glad it made itself known. I published this piece on LinkedIn this week.

By the way a kudos to those of you who hunted me down on LinkedIn after I posted that piece about setting up your profile a couple episodes back.

I published another piece on ‘Grit’. I’m reading that book by Angela Duckworth and I would recommend it. Very good book. Pulls together many of the concepts we’ve talked about here and, frankly, a very appropriate read for endurance sports aficionados.

How’s my training been? Am I still battling injuries? I know I left you hanging with some knee pain and some foot pain and a couple week’s off? Well the day after we last talked I went out and hit a hilly 18-miler with my buddies and felt great. Coach has been beating the crap out of me but I’m hanging strong.

He gave me a 13 mile step up run with 50 minutes of it in zone 4-5 that I struggled with. He gave me these hill repeats that I’m going to share with you. Then last Sunday I knocked off a hilly 19-miler on my own in 2:45. Yesterday he damn near killed me with a set of 7 7-minute intervals. But, I’m getting it done and nothing hurts. 6 weeks out from Boston so this is the hard part. The dark place.

For the remainder of this week he’s got me doing another set of hill repeats and then a tempo 14-miler with the middle 10 miles at faster than race pace. So, yeah, the good stuff!

…

I’ve been trying out different guided meditations on Youtube as part of my morning routine. Like I said you can search on “Meditation for _____” fill in the blank and you’ll find several. Meditation for sleep, for studying, for energy, for anxiety, for dead possums…anything.

Most of these are just breathing meditation. Some have various relaxation and visualization techniques. But some are actually very close to hypnosis, so you have to be careful. They will do that thing where they talk you into a meditative state and then do the old “you are going down an elevator…deeper and deeper…when I count to three…” that sort of thing. Just be careful, because in this state you are susceptible to suggestions.

Like I said it’s hard for me to meditation because Buddy the Wonder dog hates meditation and will invariably start his barking and whining when I’m deep in a meditative state. He hates meditation.

Funny, I noticed I’ve been buying a lot of extra dog treats recently…and going for a lot of walks…

Hmmmm….

On with the show!

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. We have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

Section one –

Voices of reason – the conversation

Dan Weston

Short bio :

I started running at the age of 26 and quickly progressed to running for North Wales. I did well in 10ks, so moved up to half-marathons, then full marathons and Ultras often achieving a podium finish. In the last year and a half I’ve been focusing on Ultra Marathons. Representing my Country (Wales) in the last few.

My goals for the next year are to achieve a sub 2h30m marathon, win a few more UK Ultra Marathons.

Section two

Outro

Yes, my friends, not only have you run to work but you have taken a shower and found yourself at the end of episode 4-360 of the RunRunLive podcast.

I will continue to train away for Boston. I’m keeping my promise of not running any of the spring races and just focusing on the big race. That will be my 19th Boston Marathon. My club gets a hotel room at the finish with a massage / physical therapist. If you need a place to take a shower let me know and we can have a beer! That is if you’re willing to wait until I drag my tired old bones across the finish line.

I am collecting for Team Hoyt and I’m a bit light so I could use the help – the link is in the show notes.

My cross-training project for the summer is probably going to be to try to climb the 10 tallest mountains in New England. Not sure I can do them all in one season but Teresa says she’s in.

…

The days are noticeably warmer and longer. I’ve been getting out in shorts the last couple weeks. Spring is in the air. I really like spring. It’s a hopeful season. A season of rebirth. A season of new beginning and promise.

It makes me think about how lucky I am. How many podcasts I’ve been able to produce on this journey. How many adventures we’ve had together. How many great new friends I’ve made.

I’m a lucky person. I really am. I am grateful. Thank you for hanging around with me.

Think about what you’re grateful for. I bet it will make you smile when you’re doing hill repeats!

When we last talked my training was great and I was ramping up my volume and intensity. Of course that was a great way to cures myself. The next day I ran an easy run with my buddies and that night I had a noticeably sore knee. I couldn’t tell if it was from the running or from carrying some heavy crates up to the attic so I took a few days easy.

By mid week it was gone and turns out I probably tweaked something in a non-running activity. Just goes to show you how terribly fragile a marathoner becomes in the run up to a road marathon. As a result I missed a weekend long run.

Then this past weekend I got 17 and a half in with my buddies and my foot ended up being quite sore afterwards. Feels like I aggravated my plantar fasciitis again. It’s a combination of the high volume, the cold weather and my shoes are getting old. But, I had to take most of this week off as well.

I dragged my bike trainer in from the porch and set it up in the living room in front of the TV and have been spinning away. I’m going to try an easy 18 tomorrow morning with my buddies.

One great development is that coming full circle I’m doing long runs with my old friend Frank who you might remember from episode 1! He went through that same hip resurfacing thing and is back on the roads with me training for Boston!

Never say never!

Never say die!

We’ll be doing this when we’re 80!

Today I chat about trail running and plant eating with the delightful Pam the “Trail Moma” – I think you’ll like her. Thanks to my friends out there for responding to my cry for help to get some new interviewees! It worked.

In section one I’ve got a long piece on how to survive the winter blues in your training and your life.

In section two I’m going to test out piece on sales that I’d appreciate any feedback on.

Send me fistfulls of dirty cash in duffel bags, or just contribute, to my Team Hoyt fund. Yeah you. I’m talking to you! Do the right thing. I know where you live. I’m sending Buddy to break your legs for a contribution.

I’ve had to move 3 large helpings of winter storm snow this week and my back hurts! But we also got the winter moon which was wonderful!

The days are getting longer. Spring is coming.

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. We have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

Voices of reason – the conversation

As for a bio, feel free to use this or grab from my site - either is fine.

A New Jersey transplant that landed herself in California, Pam is a weekend warrior with a passion. She works full-time, is the mother of two and has a burning desire to see everyone achieve their best life by thriving on a plant-based diet. If she's not running the canyons of Northern California she is attending plant-based conferences or has her nose in a book reading the latest on the healing properties of plants. She finds pleasure in helping those that reach out to her for help in transitioning out of the Standard American Diet (SAD) and into one that will transform them inside and out.

Section two

Outro

Yes, my friends, this particular trail is a dead end that you have followed, an impassable swamp of ideas that you cannot ford, but you have reached, at the end of the RunRunLive Podcast.

I’m still training away and a couple weeks isn’t going to affect me either way. The lesson, for you, though, is, as I said in the first piece, pay attention and get in front of injuries early in your cycle. Before they take you out. I know in my experience there is never an immediate chronic injury, it’s always something that would have healed in a couple weeks or days if I had just been smart about it.

We’re about a month and a half out from Boston. That gives me plenty of time to tune my racing. I’m already riding a good fitness base so I’m not worried about it. I can lose those last ten pounds in 2 weeks if I have to!

I’ve got a lot going on. I’m short on time today and that’s ok. That’s why we set deadlines. Deadlines and urgency are enabling. As a matter of fact urgency is one of the preconditions for entering a flow state. Translation: you do some of your best work when you don’t have any other choice and you don’t have time to think about it!

I’m reading a great book, that I’ll write more about in the future, called ‘Grit’, by Angela Duckworth. It talks a lot about how being successful is more related to sustained effort than intelligence and skill. I love this concept. I can see it in my running and career.

It also says that when you find something that you are passionate about, that becomes your obsession and purpose, it isn’t like being struck by lightning. Most people don’t end up doing what they thought they would. The path to success and passion and self-realization is a crooked one.

If you were to stumble across my personal journals you’d find them full of laments that I don’t know what I want to do with my life!

The first phase is one of ‘interest’ of ‘discovery’ before people lock into that thing they love.

So, don’t be afraid to try new things and shop around in your interest. It’s an incremental process and a crooked road that never ends. Please, enjoy the journey!

Well hello my friends and welcome to Episode 4-358 of the RunRunLive Podcast. How are you doing? We made it to February. We’re on the other side of the equinox. The days are getting longer.

My training is going great. I’ve been eating clean and I’m ramping up my miles for Boston. I did a 1:20 step up on Sunday with a full 50 minutes of tempo at faster than race pace. I did a hilly 10.5 on Tuesday and another hilly 10.8 on Wednesday. I’m at close to 30 miles and I’ve got two more runs this week.

That’s good volume for me and my legs feel good. I’m recovering well and nothing hurt. Right on plan.

Today we have an interesting interview with a handsome, intelligent and compelling man. No. Not really. Just kidding. As I threatened I had my baby, future Neurosurgeon, Teresa ask me questions that you had sent in. What can I say, they can’t all be great shows! Come o, we’re at episode 358 for heaven’s sake! I get a gimme now and then.

In part one I’ll focus in on how to execute a step-up run. In section two I’ll share a piece that I wrote this week on how to tell your story on LinkedIn for my business blog.

Other than that it’s Friday night and I owe you a show! So let’s progress with alacrity before we freeze in this February evening.

…

I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. We have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

Last week one of my runs was a 30-30 workout. It’s a bit of a speed workout. You warm up then you run 30 seconds hard, at 15-20 seconds faster than your 5K pace. Then you recover for 30 seconds and repeat. Do that 20 times and cool down.

It’s the type of workout that you should really do on the track, but the local tracks are all under snow right now so I did it in my neighborhood.

My neighborhood is almost exactly a 1K loop. It’s sort of a slightly inclined 1K oval. It’s good for this type of workout and my neighbors have long gotten over the fact that I’m THAT guy.

There’s a Montessori school at the end of road. So I ran past the kids playing in the playground every 4-5 minutes. I got out at lunch, to get some sun, so they were out playing in the snow. These are little kids.

They were playing over the remains of a snow fort of some sort. We got this weird ice-rain-snow-freeze that makes for some sturdy, crunchy snow.

I got these little windows of precocious organizational behavior as I ran by.

First time I passed they were trying to stop someone from destroying the snow fort. There was a party that was actively pro-destruction and another that really didn’t want them to do that and a couple of moderators trying to find a middle ground.

Next time I went by they had figured out some way to jump off or slide on the fort remains and now were working out the rules for doing so. Much debate on the proper jumping and sliding protocols.

Next time they were all happily taking turns doing whatever it was they decided was the funnest thing to do, but since, apparently only one person at a time could do it, the moderators were now verbally enforcing who’s turn it was and how long they could go.

No adults involved. Just a gang of little kids on a snow fort. And they self-organized to keep things moving along.

Made me think about the nature of humans and how we are much stronger together than apart. When we can work it out and find a way to move forward – everybody wins. Maybe we could promote these kids up to run the world?

On with the show.

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Section two

Outro

Alrighty my friends. You stepped up to the end of episode 4-358 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Love you guys. Don’t be afraid to send me questions or comments. I do love the interaction.

I’m right on track in my training for Boston. I received my entry confirmation today – so it’s real! Hopefully we’ll get good weather and I’ll be able to let the dogs out! My nutrition has been super clean this week. It’s been a good build week and I feel pretty good. I’ll go out for an easy 7-8 with my buddies tomorrow and then 15-16 on Sunday.

As I promised I skipped Derry this year and am not signing up for any of the spring races. I may decide to do Eastern States. But I’m trying to focus my training and keep it simple.

…

I had two back to back 1:30 runs this week. I did them on a hilly course around my house over into the next town on the back roads. We’ve got snow on the ground and it’s in the mid-20’s.

Tuesday I couldn’t get the run done until it was dark out. I went out into the cold, quiet New England winter night. It’s really special in the winter at night when it’s cold out.

It was a moonless night. It was super quiet. When it gets cold the air gets really dry and crisp. All you can hear is the pat pat pat of your feet on the pavement and the sound of your own breathing.

Even though there was no moon, because of the icy snow cover the woods and roads were lit up from the starlight. When it gets dry like this the stars fight their way through the light pollution and stand out. You can look up and see Orion the Hunter and the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia and the sparkling dust of the Milky Way. Our home.

So don’t be afraid to get out and feel the cold air in your lungs and live the winter months with the verve and joie de vivre that I know you all possess.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-357 of the RunRunLive podcast. I wrote this sitting in the airport in San Jose waiting on a red-eye flight back east. I don’t mind sleeping on planes. I’m a good sleeper. It wasn’t a direct flight and there actually wasn’t much sleep. I’m a bit burnt out from a couple weeks of travel and some emotionally draining interactions.

I got a run in. A morning run. I just headed out from the hotel and followed the trolley tracks and sidewalks up north 1ststreet. It was cold and rainy. Something very rare in California. They welcomed the rain but it messed people up. It caused extreme traffic problems.

It was a bit surreal running past PayPal’s head quarters in the pre-dawn drizzle. I just did an out and back. It’s cold for them - in the 40’s and everyone is bundled up in down jackets and scarves. It was more like an April day for me and I was in shorts and a t-shirt.

Today we are going to talk to Joe Hill a friend of the show who talks us through his hip resurfacing journey that ended, believe it or not, spoiler alert, very well. This is a continuation of the ‘overcoming serious injuries’ series.

And I have no agenda here. I’m perfectly fine, training away, no aches and pains more than usual. I am unusually busy so I’ll apologize for being distracted!

I have been collecting questions for a Q&A show and I’m going to get Teresa to interview me - that should be fun - so if you have questions for me about anything send ‘em on over.

In the first section I’ve got a piece about how long should the long run be in your training plan. In the second section I’m going to share with you a verbal doodle I penned while sitting in a Starbucks in San Jose. Hey, take it for what it is. My form of poetry. Sorry. As the saying goes „Sometimes you’re the bird and sometimes you’re the windshield.“

Two self serving points. I am collecting for Team Hoyt for the Boston Marathon and would appreciate your support. A little bit from a lot of people makes a difference. Be kind. Help those who need it.

The second thing is that the podcast is ad free and listener supported. I do this by offering a membership option. This isn’t a job for me, it’s a hobby and your membership helps keep the lights on. In exchange we put out some members only content. Go to my website to sign up.WWW.RunRunLive.Com

...

I watched a good movie last week. It’s one of the new releases on Amazon Prime and it’s called Gleason. It’s about Steve Gleason, an American football player, famous for bocking a punt in the post-Katrina New Orleans Superbowl.

He finds out he has ALS, Lou Gerrig’s disease, and documents the whole process. This is the same disease Stephen Hawkings has. Most patients don’t last more than 3 - 5 years. Hawkings has somehow managed to live to 73 with it.

It’s a terrible disease because it doesn’t really effect your mind but it wastes your body. It is a heart wrenching movie. In my house they girls usually fight over what to watch, but this had a football in it so my wife would watch it and had some neuro science in it so my daughter would too.

Section two

Outro

Yes my friends you have slept sitting up between two strangers all the way across the country and to the end of Episode 4-357 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

How about Joe,huh? New hip and he runs a PR and gets a BQ! The learning here is that you don’t have to train, just get new parts! I wonder how many years before sports are going to have to make a call on how much artificial augmentation you get to have in your body before you get disqualified or at least have a different standard for ‘augmented’ humans?

It’s a science fiction world out there.

I don’t think I’m going to race until Boston this year. I’m a bit tired of these races and they are all getting pricey as well. We’ll see. I might get the urge to run Eastern States or Stu’s but I’m going to skip Derry this weekend and just do my own long run.

I don’t have any big plans for the summer yet. I just finished reading Thoreau’s “The Maine Woods” and I’m thinking about taking Teresa up to climb Kataddn. It still sounds pretty wild up there on the other side of Bangor and I do love the woods. http://www.baxterstateparkauthority.com/maps/hiking.htm

I’ll write a review of ‘The Maine Woods’ this week. It was much more readable, narrative-wise, than Cape Cod or Walden. I might circle back to Walden, but I’ll work in some business reading first.

With travel the last couple weeks I have fallen off the good-eating habits train, but I’ll get back on and do what I can. Life is life and you have to adjust to circumstance. With Boston only 90 days away my training will start getting more intense and more race specific. Longer runs and more tempo work, less easy base building.

Buddy is doing great. I took him for a run in the woods this week and he loved it. 20 minutes in the cold and slush. He’s now the last of his cadre in the neighborhood. The last of his class, the black lab next door who taught him how to swim moved on to the great dog park in the sky after the holidays. Buddy is still up and reasonably mobile for a goofy old man.

...

I was going to end this show by sharing some thoughts on the Hollywood blacklist. I’m listening to a history of it right now, and it’s top of mind. But it wasn’t the most positive thing so I’ll push it out to the member’s feed and avoid the hate mail.

Instead let’s think about Joe’s journey, and Steve Gleason and all the others like them. We all have low points and challenges in our lives. When you’re inside them you can’t even imagine things getting better. You get overwhelmed by hopelessness and despair.

Invariably when I look back at the really challenging times in my life, whether they be in my career or my training they were a gift. They caused me to stand up and take charge of my story. They caused me to take leaps of faith and make things happen. The lower the low point, the bigger the challenge, the more you learn from it and the bigger the bounce. You come the other side forged in the heat of the furnace. You become a much stronger and resillient person.

But only if you are willing to try, to adapt, to learn - to get over yourself and move. Challenges become meaningful when you give them meaning. Low points become valuable when you wring the value from them.

And as for you - Keep your heads up and your eyes open. Watch out for the sharp rocks and hanging branches of life... and I’ll see you out there.

Hey there! It’s a new year! I know we lost a lot of celebrities in 2016, but you and I made it, right?

So welcome to a new year. And welcome to the extra-mile edition of the RunRunLive Podcast. That’s right I grabbed our friend Kevin Gwin away from his Beatles albums and Galloway chatter to talk to me about communities of runners and how the world has changed since we started doing this a decade ago.

I think we started the year running the Hangover Classic 10k on January first and jumping in the ocean. Then in January didn’t trundle the wife off to Phoenix for a quick vacation that included the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon and a bunch of cool sight-seeing?

Did I not run a bunch of the local races leading up to Boston? Like Derry and Stu’s and Eastern States? Did I not Have a great training cycle? The best in 5 years right?

Then we ran Boston and learned that lesson about going out too fast that somehow never gets learned. But, we checked off our 18th Boston, didn’t die and raised some coin for the Hoyts.

Do I seem to remember capping off 10 years of Race Directorship of the Groton Road Race? The race and the club managed to survive my term and handed it off to someone even more capable!

There might have been a couple weeks in May where all that caught up with me and I slowed down with a small case of pneumonia, but you can’t get rainbows without rain.

I jumped out of that rough patch by running the Grand Canyon with my newly graduated Daughter. How cool is that for a bucket list checkoff?

The summer was a bit doldrum filled, but I capped it off with another nice vacation to Chicago, yes I did see a Cubs Game in Wrigley Field. Apparently my good karma rubbed off on those fellows later in the year.

I shook off the heat and placed in that trail marathon in Indy. I returned to my old friend the Wapack Trail for a long outing in the rocks on Labor Day.

Then I turned around and spanked that Spartan Beast a couple weeks later, making a fair amount of young people cry.

Somewhere in there I lost 15 pounds and showed up for the Portland Marathon lean and light. I got lucky with the weather and requalified.

I joined my club for the Ayer 5k tradition on Thanksgiving and our end-of-season shindig at the Mill Cities Relay.

This past Saturday I ran the 4th edition of my very own made up marathon and I’ll tell you about that later.

Goodreads tells me I read 27 books. I know I wrote at least 52 articles. I pushed out 26 podcasts.

I trained almost every day.

Pretty good year, right? Was it perfect? Was it filled with challenges and accidents and side turns? Of course, it was. If everything is smooth sailing and your life isn’t filled with challenges you’re not living, you’re waiting to die.

I don’t know if any of that stuff would be considered worthy, or good or bad. I try very hard not to waste time keeping score.

It’s simpler. Get up and do stuff. Do what you can do. I have a sign by y desk that reminds me that consistency and practice are a reasonable substitute for genius, it says; “Work the Process.”

Anyway, today we talk with Kevin. In section one I’ll talk a bit about breathing. I was thinking about this topic this week and wanted to poke at it a bit. In section two I’ll probably pull some more nuggets out of the Drucker book I’ve just finished. (that would count as number one for 2017, if I was keeping score!)

…

BeforeI let you go I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. We have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

My family and I go over to my Mom’s for Christmas Eve. I was driving around in the truck with Buddy doing errands on Saturday and she called me to see what time I was planning to come. I asked her who else was coming, because I had some nieces and nephews I was trying to get presents to.

And she must have thought I was qualifying the gathering because she said “It’s not the number of people who show up, Chris, it’s the quality of the people who show up.”

There ya go.

Happy New Year.

On with the show.

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

Voices of reason – the conversation

The Extra Mile Podcast is a podcast for runners of all abilities from any part of the globe.

In this podcast we encourage runners, no matter what their ability, to get in touch and send us their audio updates to tell us about their training, their races, or even if they've just taken up running. We welcome everyone in to our online community.

Some runners choose to record themselves out on a run, whilst others like to record in the comfort of their own home. Whichever suits you, why not record us a message and let us know how your running is going? You can use your computer, your MP3 player or any type of audio digital recording device to record something and email it in to us, we really would love to hear from you.

This podcast is listened to by many runners around the globe who often take the show out on their training runs and just love to hear about how other runners are doing - a bit like having a group virtual running buddies to keep them company.

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Section two

Outro

Alrighty my friends. New year, new lease on life, right? Blank slate for us. You my friend have diaphragmatically breathed your way through the end of Episode 4-356 of the RunRunLive podcast.

Strange cadence to the holidays this year. It seems like everyone disappeared for 2 weeks on the business side. I was trying to make calls and I couldn’t get a response out of anyone. Now this week they are all emerging from the woodwork with a corresponding urgency!

As of Monday I’m back on my clean eating wagon. It feels good. My goal is to see if I can get down to 165 pounds for the Boston marathon. It’s ironic that the government BMI tables have always told me I should be between 155 and 165 for my height. I always thought that was bull. At that weight I’m going to be somewhere in the 6-7% body fat. Should be able to see some of those ab muscles I’ve never seen!

I’m healthy and my training is going well. Coach has me in the build-2 stage, which means I’ll start ramping up the volume and working in some intensity.

I did one last idiotic thing to close out the year, well, actually two things.

I hosted the 4th annual Groton Marathon. We made it more official this year. We set up the clock and had people ‘register’. We got some blank buttons with the club logo on them. I Left a piece of notebook paper on the tailgate of my truck and had people sign in their name, distance and make up a bib number.

The official bibs were the buttons. I gave them a sharpie to write their numbers on the button. Of course, given the geekiness of runners I didn’t just get numbers. I got two pi’s, a mu, a natural logarithm and a tally mark five. Then I had them write down their finishing time when they were done. So we could get results. I handed out handmade holiday ornaments as medals.

I got about 24 people to come out and run various differences. The ½ was very popular. Two other guys joined me for the full. Given the shape I was in it was probably about 4-6 miles more than I should have been running – but we got it done, finishing up around 4:09. It hovered just below freezing for the whole day.

I guess the lesson here is you don’t need to be a $150 Rock n Roll event to get out and have fun with your buddies.

Because of the odd way the holidays fell, the Hangover Classic was the next day. I ran the 5K with Teresa and we all jumped in the Atlantic, as is our tradition. It was interesting running the day after a marathon. I just stretched out and let my legs do what they wanted.

I survived. Now I’m back on the plan and ramping up for Boston. It’s good to have a compass point to steer towards.

On a different note, Buddy the old Wonder dog is doing ok. He can’t run much anymore because his his back hips are very weak now. He’s not in any pain, he just has trouble getting up and down. He still climbs the stairs and jumps up in the bed. He’s still perfectly mobile, but I think his running days are over.

He’s started his new career as a lap dog to keep the girls warm at night. Not a bad gig.

…

We had a warm day with rain this week and it washed most of the snow and ice from the trails. I was able to get out for a run.

Out behind the pond I found a cell phone in the ground. I brought it home. It was a droid in an Otter case and it still had a charge on it. It was locked so I couldn’t tell whose it was. I brought it home and put it on the charge. It rang a couple times, but I couldn’t get to it in time. I ended up dropping it at the police station. I hope the owner thinks to call down there. I feel like I should put a sign up on the trail that says “I found your cell phone and left it with the Police.”

I also tried to give blood. Funny story. The Red Cross were sending me desperate emails. I tried to make an appointment on their website, but my experience is that making an appointment really has no impact on the process. It’s not the most organized process.

Of course the lady is taking my HR and I tell her it’s going to be low, but she enters it and the system flags it, and she has to call a doctor to get it overridden. Crazy right? I sometimes feel like we get penalized for being healthy.

Then they hook me up, she can’t find a vein, because, I guess I ‘m a bit grissley. She fishes around, calls the other guy over, he fishes around, they finally find some blood flow and get me going. Couple minutes later the next person wanders by and notices that I’ve dried up. She fishes around for awhile, then they give up. They unhook me and I’m done.

That’s it. They don’t get a bag of blood. I get a bottle of water, a t-shirt, a Dunkies gift card and a bruise. So, I’m not complaining but there’s an hour and a half of my life I think we could make better use of!

Anybody else have this challenge? Seems like a process that could use a bit of effectiveness consulting, eh?

…

So my friends. Here we are in 2017. Ten years in. Remember when you were a kid and 10 years seemed like such a long wait? Now it’s the blink of an eye.

It’s up to you to slow it down. You have to grab time by the tail and hold on tight, or as Ferrris said, you might miss it.

We tend to get caught up and tied up by all the things undone, piled up and leering at us. I think you have to actively counter that. Especially in these early days of the calendar when we’re all thinking about goals and list and priorities.

I leave you with one of the sentiments from my daily practice.

Focus on executing today, living now, being present in today’s tasks and let the outcomes take care of themselves.

Hello my little elves and reindeer and welcome to the Saturnalia celebration of the RunRunLive Podcast. We are at Episode 4-355 today. I hope all of you are doing well. Are you getting to spend some time with your families? Maybe take a moment to be grateful and in the moment? It’s all good.

Today we are going to do a little heart rate training refresher with coach. I have been getting a lot of questions on heart rate training so I thought we’d take a couple beats to review some of that. Maybe it will set you up for your next training cycle coming out of the winter solstice.

In section one I’m going to talk about Raynaud’s disease or syndrome – which is common in the cold weather months – and how it’s a different thing than just having cold hands. In section two I’m going to wax philosophic about setting your own work/life balance rules.

As you may have noticed from the sexy timber of my voice I am or have been sick. Last week I had a sore throat that rapidly progressed into a sinus infection and I’ve been on antibiotics for a couple days.

I lost a week of training in the process and managed to eat 6 pounds worth of sugar cookies as well. I’m getting fairly disgusted with myself! I’m ready to get back on the training horse for…{dramatic pause here} the Boston Marathon!

Yes, I’m lucky enough to have received a waiver entry for the 2017 Boston Marathon. It will be my 19th Boston. I’m qualified for 2018, but not this year, I age up in November of 2017. Unless they change the rules again.

It’s been a long ride. Qualifying for that first Boston in 1997 damn near killed me. I only needed a 3:15 at the time because I was already aging up in 1998. But I trained for and ran a 3:09 just because that was the goal I set. I set my PR at Boston that spring of 98 at the ripe old age of 35 running a 3:06 on a nice cool, drizzly day.

I remember that day. I remember passing Rick and Dick Hoyt somewhere in the middle miles. They weren’t as famous as they would become. You could really see people back then, especially as a qualified runner, there were a lot less, like a tenth, the number of runners on course. The crowds were the same but the course had a lot fewer runners.

I clearly remember that day. GPS watches didn’t exist yet, but I knew I was running over my head when I caught the Hoyts. I positive splitted that race too. Ran like an idiot. The last two miles were a nightmare but I was in good enough shape to tough it out.

You can see the thousand-mile stare in my eyes in the race photo from Boylston street. Good photo. My form is beautiful. I’ve got nice, big hair with a red bandana as a sweat band. I’ve got those red high-cut shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt with a nice nipple blood stain.

You remember those things. Those moments change your life.

In the same way the Hoyts have changed thousands of lives. Just by being out there. I hear the stories. They all start with some version of “Little Johnny saw Rick and Dick, turned to me and said “We can do that!”, and, Bam!, I life is changed, a dream is enabled. That art of the possible. The frame is broken.

I can be part of that by supporting these guys. So expect me to ask you for a contribution so I can help these guys continue to change the world. You can do that.

On with the show!

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

Voices of reason – the conversation

IT STARTS WITH THE DECISION TO TRY!

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Section two

Outro

Hey folks, merry Saturnalia and solstice to you…congratulations on having your heart continue beating through the course and to the end of episode 4-355 of the RunRunLive Podcast

No races to report this week. Just 6 extra pounds of Christmas cookie blubber and an amoxicillin chaser.

I do have the Groton Marathon coming up. As usually happens people tend to bail out as we get closer. What seems like a swell idea in October becomes a dumb idea In December. With my week off I’m in no shape to run it, but as the host I’m going to have to trundle my cookie-eating-butt out there and make a show of it.

Teresa wants to run the Hangover classic, which due to the way the holiday’s fall is the next day! I guess a guy of my experience can go limp an easy 5k with an ocean dip… The water is warm this year; it’s in the mid-40’s. That will cure any and all hangovers.

As we kick off the new year, as we turn over the calendar, it’s a new season. I’m going to focus on getting back into the shape I was in for Portland. With that fitness and actually training for the target race I should be able to go down into the 3:20’s and I’d really like to do that as a vindication for these last five years of struggle before I age up and stop worrying about it.

I know. As much as I like to act like I don’t care, I guess I do. As much as I like to pretend I’m not compulsive in my need for book-end events, I am. I guess we’re all compulsive in our own ways right?

…

I’ll keep it brief. I hope you’re listening to this while you’re out in the winter trails at night under a waning moon. The snow crunching and squeaking under your yaktrax. The breath blooming large like a flower of life from your lungs. A chrysanthemum of joyous exertion. I’d like that.

I’ve been figuring out how to get out in the dark and the cold and the snow myself. We got enough snow, and it stayed, to narrow the roads and make the trails dicey. People in the cars around me are super angry. We only get 4 hours of sunlight or something now, so, yeah, it’s a challenge to get out there, right?

But you must get out there. Out there is that other existence. Out there is where life is.

So get out there. Lean in…or maybe out…make someone’s day.

Enjoy your holidays. Be grateful. Hug your family. Cuddle the dog. Relax. Be in the moment. Thank you for 2016.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-354 of the RunRunLive Podcast. How’s everyone doing? We got our first snow on the ground up here in New England this week. It’s been a mild winter so far.

In today’s show we have a good long chat with my old buddy Thor about his experience with Lyme Disease. This is part of my series on athletes who have been challenged and have had to reconsider the role of running in their lives.

In section one I’m going to drop a piece on selecting a HR monitoring device (based on a listener question) and in Section two I’m going to share some timeless wisdom by Peter Drucker.

This past Sunday I raced the Mill Cities Relay. They gave me the ‘long leg’ of 9.5 miles and I was on a solid male senior team with 4 other guys from my club.

I’ll talk more about that race in the outro, but I’m running well and everything is cool with my training. I’m looking forward to the spring season.

…

When you join me for my call with Thor today I want you to listen to his attitude. He’s super positive about life even when this insidious disease is tearing at him. His positive attitude is infectious, (horrible word-play unintended).

When I ask him how he coped he just stayed positive. That’s the lesson here. The things that impact your life have no meaning other than that which you give them. You can either ‘feed the good dog or feed the mean dog’ as the old story goes.

So stay positive. Be that infectious force for those around you. You deserve it and they deserve it too.

On with the show!

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

Section one –

Voices of reason – the conversation

Thor Kirleis – UltraRunner Vs Lyme Disease

From Thor on 12/7/2016 –

“This morning's run, a 3.2 mile plod of really slow loop, marked 13 years of covering at least a mile on foot each and every day. I used to say that it is my Streak Running anniversary, and it used to be through 12 years, but illness robbed me the ability to run for long stretches of days between then and now, though it never dragged me so low that I could not complete a mile even if walking (though I did come close two or three or four times to not making even a mile). So while I am now back to running, still with some challenges related to illness, I'm still motivated to celebrate my health (ironic, huh?) with a mile a day (I say even more fitting). This will be the last time that I explain how my streak isn't any longer official, because to me it was never meant to be "official", as in qualifying for this list or that list or anything other than me celebrating each and every day my health and ability to prance and play, and now sometimes walk... for 13 years!”

Section two

Outro

All-Righty-Then, you and I have battled off a host of nasty internal pathogens to the end of episode 4-354 of the RunRunLive podcast. How about that?

Like I said in the intro I raced last weekend. The long leg is leg 4 out of 5 and it’s a quite doable flat to downhill course along the Merrrimack River. The challenges are sometimes the weather is dicey in December (there can be a head wind at the end) and you don’t get much of a chne to warm up.

The leg before the 9.5 is the short 2.5 leg, so you’re basically driving to the exchange, jumping out of the car and racing. My old body does better with a thorough warm up these days, especially on cold weather days.

I went out fast. We had a rival club team with a 3 minute head start on us that I could potentially catch if everything went well. I laid down the first 3 miles at a sub-7 pace, but I wasn’t feeling it. I felt heavy.

I have been letting the diet slip since Portland and I think it caught up with me. I ended up averaging somewhere between 7:15’s and 7:20’s which, given where I’ve been over the last 5 years, I’m thrilled with. My HR was great but my legs were heavy and I wasn’t running clean. I was sore from the effort. I whined to coach and he said I’m racing too much. But that’s what he always says!

My Heart is strong and my aerobic base is huge so I’m feeling pretty good about the spring season. I can always fix my diet and if I can stay healthy I should be able to get some good performances!

…

I was drove into my old office in Burlington last week. It’s behind the mall. Anyone who knows anything about American culture knows that the malls do 85% of their business in the short time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My usual route when I’m coming off the highway, is to cut through the mall to ‘cut the corner’ on the turnpike and save a few stoplights and a little time. This time of year, even in the middle of the day the mall is busy. The parking lot is full. There are people, cars and general holiday freneticism.

I rounded a corner by the old Sears store in my truck and saw a woman pushing a stroller crossing the road. It’s a tight corner so I surprised her. There was never any danger of me hitting her, because I saw her, and I’m not driving recklessly, but she is in that no-woman’s-land of the crossing. You know - Less than half way across. Too far to turn back. Forward momentum into the middle of the street.

I can see that combination of fear and anger on her face. She’s doing the Newtonian physics in her head when she sees my truck come around the corner. She sees the very small chance that I might be checking my email or twiddling with the radio and she is going to have to sprint for the curb or die.

But there’s more to that look. There’s the harried nature of the young mother’s life. She’s got a million errands to run and has to drag the kid with her. She’s probably already well behind schedule on her mental check list.

I brake to a stop and wave her across.

As she bustles by I notice the stroller. In it is a child, maybe 2 years old, all bundled up against the cold. He’s wearing a bear hat with bear ears. He’s got the biggest smile on his face. Like riding around in the stroller in his bear hat on, on a cold, gray, November day is the coolest adventure ever!

Watching them cross, the mom probably wasn’t havening a great day, but, the kid was having a fantastic time.

Maybe he didn’t know he was supposed to be miserable? Which attitude are you going to have during these holidays?

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-353 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we are going to have a chat with our old friend Ann Brennan about not being able to run anymore. I’m going to do a series on this – so if you’ve got some major body part replacement or something that has caused a radical shift in your endurance sports allegiance – shoot me a note and we’ll chat about it.

In section one I’m going to talk about how to ease into heart rate training and how it makes a great 30-day project. In section two I’m going to talk about a 30-day project I’m in – running naked!

I apologize for the rough edit job on the last show. I got a new laptop and it took me a while to break it in. It was really struggling with the audio editing. I de-installed the stupid McAffee software, changed the cache settings and added another 8 meg of RAM, so we’re good now.

We finally figured out how to set up a separate podcast feed for members and I’m working on it. I have a nice piece on running in the November woods that I’m going to drop this week for members. If you would like to join and help support the podcast that would be great and you would have access to members only audio.

Here’s a snippet…

The sound of the leaves crunching underfoot with each rotation of sole. That sound that is more than a sound. It is a sound that you feel through your body with each footfall. Like biting into a crisp apple and that first sweet chew of skin and flesh.

The November leaves have yet to be trodden down by the rains of fall and the snows of winter. They lay heavily on the trails and in the woods like great drifts of snow. Piling deep in the hollows, hiding in their multitudes, huddled together from the harrying winds.

Did you see the kerfuffle around fake news on Facebook? Wasn’t I just talking about that? There yah go. I’m a trend setter.

My running is going great. I had a kinda big build week last week. Probably up into the mid-40 miles. Mostly long Zone 2 trail runs. My base aerobic fitness is spot on. I feel great.

What I try to do is to take Buddy the old wonder dog out for the first 20 minute loop, then drop him at the house and go back out. He’s struggling a bit. His hips hurt and his back legs don’t work all the time very well.

I’ve had a stretch where I haven’t been traveling and I’ve been working out of my home office. It’s great, most of the time. You can really get into a nice rhythm. I get up early and do my morning routine. It makes nutrition and workouts easy to manage as well.

In the mornings when I get up I have a routine. I get up, brush my teeth and head downstairs to the kitchen. I switch on my computer when I walk by on my way to the kitchen. I put my coffee and oatmeal on the cook. I settle in at my desk while that cooks and do 5 minutes of guided breathing meditation.

Now Buddy has hacked my routine. As soon as I switch the lights on he wants out. If I let him out he sits in the front yard and barks. Not at anything just Bark! Bark! Bark! Like some sort of dog Morse code. This is very early in the morning and does not ingratiate him with the neighbors. It’s still dark out. No one is up in the neighborhood. And it’s very difficult to meditate with a dog barking like that. Even with my noise cancelling headphones.

But if I don’t let him out he’ll sit and stare at me while I’m trying to meditate. Then he’ll whine a bit to get my attention and if that doesn’t work he’ll just bark right at me.

He broke his lead this week. I went out for my run at lunch and he met me in the driveway with 3 feet of lead trailing behind him. He was quite happy with himself, having had an excellent run about the neighborhood. Apparently he got into something nasty because I woke up to him staring at a big pile of throw up on the living room carpet the next day.

So, Buddy hates meditation. I suppose I could do my meditation before I come downstairs…Or I could have him stuffed and mounted.

On with the show!

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends you may have woken up unable to ever run again but you have made it to the end of episode 4-353 of the RunRunLive podcast. How about that?

I held off writing this outro until today, the Friday after Thanksgiving, so I could let you know how my Thanksgiving 5K went. It went well. I’ll give you the 300 word race report.

The race started at 8:00 AM so I made sure to set the expectation with Teresa that we were leaving the house at 7:00, so I could get a nice long warm up in before the start. I got up and rubbed some flexall into my leg muscles to wake them up and get some blood flowing. I had some coffee and a couple bites of oatmeal. We got out of the house on time.

The weather called for freezing rain but it held off until after the race. It was below freezing, maybe 28 degrees or so. There was a skim of ice on the ponds as we drove over. I put on full tights and a long sleeve tech shirt with my club singlet over it. I had a pair of thin running gloves and the multi-colored knit hat my mom made for me. In such a short race I didn’t want to be cold.

We checked in and I headed out to run the course as a warm up. I am so glad I took the time to warm up. I ran about 2.5 miles of the course in just over 21 minutes, I managed to get my heart rate to come down but my hands never warmed up and I never broke a sweat. I probably should have done some strides, but by the time I got back to the start I had missed my clubs group photo and the race was about to start.

There are a lot of kids in this race and a lot of rookie runners. They tend to take off like bottle rockets at the beginning and you have to be careful not to get tripped or get sucked out too fast. That first mile felt so strange and unnatural. I was trying to find a form and pace that didn’t feel totally alien. I was with a bunch of folks I knew from my club but there was no way I talk to them. It was all I could do to get oxygen.

I looked up my time from last year and it was an average pace of 7:04’s so I set my A goal to break 7’s and my B goal to not collapse 2 miles in.

We clicked by the first mile mark at 6:36 which was a pleasant surprise. I had managed to find my form. I wasn’t focused on effort or pace, just on having good upright form, turning my legs over and working the tangents. This course is pretty flat but does a bunch of zig-zagging around the neighborhoods in the second mile. It helps to know the course or to have run it 20 minutes before the race!

With the fast first mile I just relaxed and worked my form. I knew last year I had faded in the last mile so I wanted to make sure I held back enough. There were a couple little kids running near me, like 8 or 9 year-olds. It’s great to see the next generation out there but they haven’t learned pace awareness or special awareness yet. It was like when you’re trying to cook in the kitchen and the dog is underfoot.

I was just behind some dude running with a pumpkin pie hat, more like a head dress, and he got a lot of attention from the volunteers.

I passed the 2 mile mark and misread my watch. I thought it said 6:37 but it actually said 6:47, but either way I knew I was ahead of my goal pace going into the last mile. Right after the 2-mile mark the course turns up and over a rail road bridge and back through the center of town, then one more small hill and downhill into the finish.

Those little hills were where I faded last year, but with my thorough warm up I was able to push through there without the leg fatigue. I just held my form and focused on turnover. I pushed through the finish strong.

My watch had me running 6:44 averages pace but the race clocked me at 6:51’s. I ended up 61st out of 587 with a 21:16 finish and 5th out of 72 in my age group. So, yeah had a good morning. Got to talk to some friends and made room for some turkey.

Next weekend I’m running in the Mill Cities Relay and I’m dragging Teresa along for that too. It’s an 8-leg invitational that all the local clubs run from Nashua New Hampshire down the Merrimack River to Lawrence Mass. My club usually fields a bunch of teams.

After that you’re all invited to join me at the 4th annual Groton Marathon and half marathon on New Years Eve Day. We’re going to have actual timing this year. I have at least 3 other people going the distance with me and we usually get 20ish people show up to run some of it with us.

…

I have been doggedly reading through Thoreau’s Cape Cod in snatches as part of my morning routine. I find it quite enjoyable. I know the places that he is talking about. I have been to them. And even though he is tramping around the outer Cape in the 1850’s, the towns are the same, the flora nad the fauna are the same, and the sand and the sea are the same. I can picture it quite well as I read.

I’m nearing the end of my trip through this small but dense book. And Mr. Thoreau is nearing the end of his trip as well. The portions I read this week travelled through Truro, past Highland Light and up Race Point to Provincetown.

One morning he is watching the mackerel fleet sail out to the fishing grounds from Provincetown. He sees hundreds of boats under sail coming in the morning then arriving back in the evening. He compares fishing in the ponds of Concord to the fishing these men do. In Concord they fish as a form of relaxation or sport. He seems to infer that these men and boys of Provincetown get to play at fishing all day and it seems like quite a life.

The next day there is a strong North Easterly gale. Thoreau and his companion march out of Providence into the wind across the desert, as he calls it, to the Atlantic shore. They see the breakers being driven onto the banks at high tide and see the few ships struggling in the sea.

“As we stood looking on this scene we were gradually convinced that fishing here and in a pond were not, in all respects, the same, and he who waits for fair weather and a calm sea may never see the glancing skin of a mackerel, and get no nearer to a cod than the wooden emblem in the State-House.”

This resonated with me on a fine morning in November with the first dust of snow on the ground. Are you waiting for calm seas? Are you waiting for fair weather? The fish aren’t going to wait for you. Get in your small boats and be brave. Go out into the stormy world and wrest your destiny from the gaping mouth of Fate.

Hello and welcome to Episode 4-352 of the RunRunLive Podcast. How are you doing? Hanging in there? Good. It’s been a weird couple weeks, But we made it. Here we are. It’s the middle of November. I am another year older and as far as I know the sun is going to come up today.

Although I can’t be too sure because we’re in that part of the year where we wake up in the dark and come home in the dark up here in New England.

The leaves are all down and the bones of the old Earth are poking through the great canvas. It’s cold in mornings and that feels good on our old bodies. I’ve already had a fire in the fireplace.

Today we have a great chat with Frank Gianinno who held the record for the cross USA run until Pete Kostelnick broke it!

In section one we’ll talk about the advantage of creating seasons of losing fitness into your endurance careers.

In section two we’ll inspect how today’s environment is wired to keep us from focusing on long term, high value projects. And I’ll issue a challenge for you to join me in a 30 day project.

My running is going fine. I’m starting to lay on some more miles now that I’m fully recovered from Portland. I’ve been doing a lot of strength work especially in my glutes and hips.

Buddy the old wonder dog is doing fine. He’s nuts though. Compulsive border collies don’t make the best retirees. He’s up in the mornings, ready to go and bothers me like a 3-year-old until he collapses on his bed for a 2-hour nap.

I’ll take him out at lunch for a short run in woods behind my house. He can still manage a slow 20 minutes but his hips bother him. We give him the Glucosamine treats and those help. As near as I can tell Buddy will be 13 this month.

He’s gone a bit deaf as well, but I think some of that may be an affectation. He just doesn’t want to listen anymore. It’s a bit like living with a crazy old person. He’ll start barking for no reason and running around the house. He hears imaginary threats.

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

I’ve been filling my birdfeeder this month. The wild birds in my yard love it. It’s a party outside the window every day. I’ve got all your normal wild New England birds. There are the small black and white chickadees that are our state bird. There are the similar looking nuthatches. There are titmice and a flock of sparrows that come in like a motorcycle gang taking over the town. There are mourning doves and cow birds who pick up the leftovers on the ground.

I’ve got a pileated woodpecker or two and some angry looking blue jays. Occasionally we’ll be surprised by a goldfinch or a ruby crested kingslet or some other unique visitor.

This morning I got up to let Buddy out at 5AM. As I held his collar in one hand and reached for his lead with the other I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a big old skunk snarfing around under the birdfeeder for left overs not 2 feet from where I was standing with the dog.

I quickly pulled the dog back inside. Crisis avoided. Imagine how different my day could have been?

Section one –

Voices of reason – the conversation

Frank’s Store:

Frank's Custom

Shoe-Fitting Happy Feet,

Guaranteed329 Route 211 East, Middletown NY 10940

845.342.9226

frankg@shoe-fitter.com

Frank’s Story:

I began fitting running shoes in 1977 in Eugene, Oregon, while attending school there. I have been a shoe store entrepreneur since 1983. Two friends, Bob Bright and Bill Glatz, opened a running store in New Paltz, New York, in 1978 called Catch Us If You Can. I was with them when Bob suggested the idea to Bill. I ran regularly with Bob and Bill and helped them in their store. I knew it was just a matter of time before I too would own a running shoe store. Orange Runners Club co-founder, Bruce Birnbaum, gave me that chance at ownership in 1981. The Middletown New York store was called Blisters Ltd. Blister’s was opened for business for only one year. The next opportunity at ownership was with Albert Weinert Jr. in 1984. At first the business was called Frank’s Run-In Room. A few years later we incorporated the business under the name Orange County Sporting Goods. I became the sole proprietor in 1991. In 1998, I changed the name to Frank’s Custom Shoe-Fitting. In 2003, I became a Board Certified Pedorthist. Here are the (14) key life experiences that put me on the path to the running shoe business: 1. Received the Eagle Scout Award, Troop 55, Blauvelt, New York, 1967; 2. Ran Track at Tappan Zee High School my freshman year; 3. Ran Track and Cross Country for three years at Valley Central High School in Montgomery, New York, graduated 1970; 4. Ran Cross Country during my two years at Orange County Community College, Middletown, New York; 5. Completed Army basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, 1972; 6. During advanced basic training at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, I watched the Olympic Games in Munich on television as Frank Shorter won Olympic Gold in the Marathon and Steve Prefontaine finished 4th in the 5,000 Meters; 7. Lived in Anchorage, Alaska, from December 1972 thru June 1975 during the “Black Gold Rush”, ran my first marathon there; 8. Spent the entire summer 1975 traveling from Alaska thru Canada and all over the USA really seeing the sights and getting to know the lay of our great land; 8. While attending SUNY New Paltz in 1975-76 ran (3) marathons in Buffalo, Maryland and Boston running Maryland in a lifetime personal best of 2:39:34; 9. While living in New Paltz that year I trained almost every day with Bob Bright; 10. While in Flagstaff Arizona 1976-77, completed my undergraduate degree and learned a great deal while training at an altitude of 7,000 feet; 11. Spent the summer 1977 traveling around the west with my brother John; Attended the University of Oregon for two semesters and lowered my personal best 10K to 32:59; 12. Worked in my first store selling running shoes Sugar Pine Ridge in Eugene, Oregon; 13. Returned to New Paltz in April 1978 for the Boston Marathon to handle for my two friends Bob Bright (27) and Bill Glatz (20) where they ran 2:37:24 and 2:32:00 respectively. The running scene in New Paltz had really elevated. While living in Flagstaff and Eugene, I really missed running in the Gunks and of course my friends and the social scene in New Paltz. 14. While in Boston I noticed a book called My Run across the United States by Don Shepherd, and started to dream about a run of my own. Soon after Boston 1978 I knew my career path was going to have a great deal to do with running. Everything I was doing revolved around the running lifestyle. Nothing ever felt more real. I have stayed close to the running sports ever since. I will continue to do so until the day I die.

Frank’s record setting run across the USA

There were actually two Runs. The first effort began on March 1, 1979, in Santa Monica, California. During a pre-dawn rain, Frank and his friend Bill Glatz scooped up some Pacific Ocean water. They handed it to their friend and handler, Rebecca Wright, to store in their donated motor home. The water would be part of a ceremony of "West meets East" on the water's edge at New York City's Battery Park at the completion of the Run. Run #1 began from the parking lot of the Four Seasons Restaurant on Highway One, overlooking the Pacific.

Prior to this, Frank and Bill often trained in the Shawangunk Mountains near New Paltz, NY. Arguably, New York's Hudson Valley Region is one of the best places to train on Earth. The mountain trails of the 'Gunks', world- famous for rock climbing, hiking and boldering, also feature some of the best 'Rave Runs' anywhere. Currently, the U. S. Marathon team trains there. The countless miles on the carriage trails of Mohonk and Minnewaska helped prepare them for their odyssey. After a rough start, Billy decided not to continue. He departed Run #1 early on day eleven in Phoenix, only after he was sure that Frank and Becky would be able to keep up the 50-mile per day pace needed to reach the finish in 60 days.

Despite daily terrain and weather challenges, Frank's greatest concerns were physical. Thankfully, symptoms that could lead to injury would disappear, despite running all day, day after day. Much of this was due to creative shoe modifications, lower leg compression hose and an understanding of self, along with the constant help of Becky. Frank, with Becky's undaunted support and friendship, finished Run #1 arriving at New York City Hall on April 30, 1979, sixty days and six hours after that rainy start. They ran through thirteen states, covered 2,876 miles, averaging fifty miles per day. Their adventures along the way have become legendary. At the end of a brief ceremony in Battery Park, the Twin Towers looming overhead, Frank answered a reporter's question regarding, "Would you ever do it again?" by saying he was definitely going to do another run: this time from San Francisco to New York. He knew that for his next Run he would need greater financing and a larger support crew.

Four months later, Frank won the Kingston Half Marathon in 1:12:05. Then in March of 1980, he finished second in the St. Patrick's Day 10K in New Paltz with a time of 33:00. All the high mileage coming across the country paid off, as Frank enjoyed the best racing performances of his life. His only other standout performance, time-wise, was his 2:39:34 in the 1975 Maryland Marathon.

RUN #2

Sixteen months after the finish of Run #1, after a brief ceremony, Frank began Run #2 from the steps of San Francisco's City Hall. This time his support crew consisted of his family and a friend. His brother John stayed with him on a bicycle to give immediate support. He had a radio/cassette player mounted on the back of the bike, as well as medical supplies and food for he and Frank. His parents, Frank Sr. and Josephine Giannino, drove the motor home and provided all-round support. His friend Bruce Goldberg did the public relations work, contacting the media, United Way representatives and running clubs along the way. Frank Sr., a retired male nurse, looked after Frank's health and the health of everyone on the trip. He drove and maintained the motor home. Josephine created a homey atmosphere in the motor home, did the cooking and calorie counting, and kept a detailed diary of her experiences. The family dog, Brindle, was on the trip too.

Things were not easy on Run #2. On the 4th of July, Stan Cottrell of Georgia raised the performance bar, completing a well-financed run from New York City to San Francisco in 48 days 1 hour 48 minutes, an average of 64 miles per day. Frank's original plan for Run #2 was to average 60 miles per day. Cottrell's effort raised the bar. Not only did he have to better that average, but he had to do it convincingly. Frank did not have the gifts of a fast ultra-marathoner, but he did have two things going for him Â— he had done this before, and he had the perfect support team to do it with - his family! If he was going to average more than 64 miles per day, everything was going to have to come together perfectly.

Frank's plan was to reach Fort Collins, CO at an average of 60 miles per day. After that, he planned to average 70 miles per day. The plan was to run 2.5 miles at 10-12 minutes per mile, walk a little, run 2.5 again and repeat the process through twenty miles; then break for breakfast for one hour; run/walk another twenty miles; break one hour for lunch; then run as many miles as possible into the nighttime hours. The first four days across California were rough. Frank's pace was slow. California roads were very busy. The family was not making enough sacrifices in an effort to reach seventy miles per day. Instead of foregoing showers and parking near the finish marker, the family would drive out of its way for a KOA, in order to be comfortable after the fifty or so miles they had covered. This pace was far below the 60 miles and ultimately 70 miles that would be needed daily.

With a renewed resolve, all family members dug in and made sacrifices. In some cases, the sacrifices were painful. Frank Sr. came down with dysentery in Nevada. John's bike was run over. Bruce survived stomach problems. Frank lost three toenails. Brindle, more than once, managed to collect burrs in her fur while seeking relief during roadside pit-stops. The stories, as on Run #1, are legendary.

Suffice it to say, things worked out in the end. The group tightened up the routine. They grabbed showers when available. Only Frank bathed at the end of the day in the motor home shower. Frank's mileage routine increased. After Fort Collins, the crew awoke at 3:00 AM; Frank ran 25 miles; broke for breakfast; twenty five more miles; lunch; then as many miles as possible by dark. They reached the 70-mile goal almost every day and finished in 46 days 8 hours 36 minutes. The Guinness Book of World Records still lists it as the fastest crossing of the United States on foot.

Many people influenced Frank's decisions to do these runs. None more than the efforts of Dave MacGillivray. One of Dave's many personal accomplishments was his 1978 run across America for the Jimmy Fund. David is the director of the Boston Marathon and is a great and cherished resource.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends you have run completely across the country to the end of episode 4-352 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Are you tired?

The next race for me will be the Thanksgiving morning Turkey trot. I don’t like 5k’s. You’d think I’d be ok with 20 minutes of intense effort versus a multi-hour campaign. But, no, I’m not.

It takes my body 10+ minutes to warm up to race effort. If I jump in cold the race is almost over before my heart rate normalizes. It hurts too. It’s a foreign feeling for me now to force myself to race at tempo pace. I’d much prefer the slow dull blade of a fat adapted endurance effort to the white-hot burn of a short race.

I’ll tell you a story.

When I was 14 or 15 this time of year I ran cross country for my school. We would take the school van to other small New England prep schools in within driving distance for meets.

I remember one cold morning in November we went to an away meet. When the race began it started snowing. The snowflakes were those big fluffy ones that you get early in the season when winter isn’t quite sure of itself yet. They float down like big, fluffy, wet potato chips and dissolve into anything they hit.

When we ran in those days we ran in short shorts and a racing singlet. I can remember those big snowflakes covering my exposed thighs as I raced, making them numb as the snow evaporated. I don’t remember anything else about that day, just the crunch of the leaves under my Nike Waffle Racers and the numb wetness of my thighs.

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-351 – RunGum

(Audio: link)

Hello my friends. How’s your October going? This is Chris, your host. Welcome to episode 451 of the RunRunLive podcast. Today we’re going to chat with Nick Symmonds Olympian, 800m champion and CEO of RunGum. I usually shy away from talking about products but Nick seemed like a fairly interesting dude and I like to support entrepreneurs, especially in our space.

Reading Nick’s bio he seems a bit of a high-energy renegade type. A world class 800M racer with a rich social life – supposedly he dated Paris Hilton but I didn’t have the guts to go there. Perhaps he’s the Toulouse-Lautrec of middle distance running? I tried to tease him out on his start-up story but he mostly sticks to the script.

It’s something we are seeing more of. Accomplished runners in 2016 don’t have to fade into obscurity or open a shoe store. The new playbook in to use that 15 minutes to launch something. A cookbook, a clothing line or a supplement.

I haven’t tried the RunGum, but I suppose it’s as good a way as any to get caffeine into your system. I’m a bit leery of supplements in general, but I tend to play a long game when it comes to my health and fitness and I’m not looking for shortcuts. If he gets a hit with RunGum it will be from treating it as a fashion accessory not as a supplement. It could go viral on him if he can get a Kardashian to spit some out at the Oscars or something.

In section one I’m going to read an abstract from an NIH article on supplements because they said it better than I could. In section two I’ll talk about the interesting nature of social media algorithms.

…

It’s been 2 weeks since the Portland marathon and I have only run once. I’ve been doing a lot of strength workouts and yoga. My right hip is a little tight and I don’t want to push it. I’m on a strict beer, chips and cake diet that is working wonders at reversing the ill effects of eating clean for 90 days!

I plead my case with the Portland marathon and they credited me 4 minutes off my finishing time for running that extra ½ mile. Honestly, the only reason I pushed so hard was I knew I was close. I’m not sure we can make a linear assumption on that pace! But, officially it’s now in the books as a 3:34:54. That puts me just over 5 minutes under my BQ for 2018.

Thank you for all the great feedback on that episode. It seems to have resonated with many of you.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio

****This week the first chapter of the lost zombie novel!!!!

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

Thank you for my new members over at the member feed. My guy in Nigeria couldn’t figure out the members only podcast feed so I got another guy somewhere else to take a swing at it. Because I’m patient. I will have the separate feed up so you can get it in your favorite podcast app. This week I’m recording some another couple book reviews for members only. If you want to join up go to the website and follow directions.

…

I also volunteered at two local races last weekend. In the morning I worked the BayState Marathon water stop. In the afternoon I worked the Groton Town Forest Trail Races. Both had excellent days.

In general the weather has been great for most of the marathons this fall. That’s going to put time pressure on all you people looking to qualify for Boston in 2018. You’d better get chewing some RunGum because you may need 4-5 minutes under your qualification standard!

It’s funny. It’s just like the 4 minute mile story. No one thought it was possible until Bannister did it. Now they run sub-4 in high school! You lower that Boston standard and people are going to figure out how to do it.

That’s the one of the great things about challenges. The bigger the challenge the more likely we are to rise to it, the more likely we are to have our finest hour!

Voices of reason – the conversation

THE RUN GUM & COMPANY STORY

PEOPLE MATTER. PERFORMANCE MATTERS

In the fall of 2002, Run Gum co-founder Nick Symmonds began his studies at Willamette University in the field of biochemistry. When Nick wasn't in class or the lab, he was running miles as part of the cross country and track and field teams. It was on the track that Nick met Run Gum's other co-founder, Coach Sam Lapray and a dynamic partnership was formed.

This partnership would go on to win 7 Division III NCAA Titles, 6 USATF Outdoor National Titles, and make two Olympic teams (Beijing 2008, London 2012). Always searching for the extra tenth of a second that could separate winning from losing, they experimented with non-banned performance-enhancing stimulants. Pulling from Nick's biochemistry background and experience in training and competition, they knew what chemicals the human body needed to perform optimally. Among these was the world’s most consumed stimulant, CAFFEINE.

Nick and Sam found that the current methods of delivering these important stimulants to the body often required drinking large quantities of liquid in the form of coffee or energy drinks. To achieve optimal performance, they needed to eliminate the water, acid and slow absorption. They wanted a product that could perform as well and as fast as Nick.

It was on the track during one of their many training sessions together that the idea came to them. GUM. Utilizing chewing gum as the delivery vehicle for stimulants to the human body allowed for faster uptake through sublingual absorption. Furthermore, this lightweight, zero calorie option would allow an athlete to run free without the unwanted liquids around in their stomachs. Truly, the smarter caffeine kick had been found.

They launched Run Gum because they truly believe that people matter and their performance matters, both in sport and in life. They hope they can show this with the products they create, the inspiration they provide and the support to athletes of all levels.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends you have chomped your caffeine laced gum through the end of episode 4-351 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Feeling a bit jittery?

I have some good news. I mentioned I was upgrading my home computers, right? I found a backup of my zombie novel that I thought I had lost in a hard disk crash 2 years ago. I have a feeling you folks on the members feed may be getting some zombies….

I’ve got no big plans other than continue to lose fitness. If my hip feels better I may try to lay on some speed for my Thanksgiving 5K. But I’m not pushing it. I have to think about what my next big thing is.

Speaking of big things, did your see the Guinness record for the USA cross country run is going to fall this week? Probably by the time you hear this. I was trading emails with Frank Gianinno who has held the record since 1980. He did it in 46 days and 8 hours and 36 minutes.

As we speak Pete Kostelnick should be pulling into NYC with an average of 72 miles a day to set a new record. Frank is going to be down there to greet Pete this week. I’m going to chat with Frank later in the week if we can swing it.

You know what’s special about Pete? Nothing much. He started running to lose weight. His first goal was to complete a marathon. He caught the bug and ran Boston in 2009 and 2010. Then he caught the ultra-bug and went on the set a new record at the Badwater 135. Now he’s going to break the record for running 3,000 plus miles across the country that has stood for 36 years.

Just because He decided to lose some weight and run a marathon.

Humans are amazing. There are miracles hidden in each of us. We just have to find them.

Hello my friends from Portland Oregon where I just ran the marathon. Portland – home of the weird. Welcome my friends and family to episode 4-350 of the RunRunLive podcast. Another week another adventure, eh?

This week’s adventure was flying to Portland to run the marathon. It was weird and wonderful and I did well – but you can hear all about it in the race report in this episode. I also sit down with Coach and we talk about some marathon strategies on the futon in his running store in Woodstock Oregon – Pace Setter Athletics.

That’s probably enough for one episode.

Thank you all for showing up every other week and listening to my stories. I appreciate it. I truly live a charmed life.

I ran into a couple folks this week who were podcast listeners and it’s super weird for them to hear my voice and see it coming out of me. I’m sure it’s terribly disturbing and potentially disappointing but I love getting out and having adventures and meeting people. I’m like Kwai Chang from Kung Fu. Wandering the earth, speaking cryptic philosophy and kicking ass. “When you can snatch the pebble from my hand…grasshopper” (Google it kids.)

I’ll keep my comments brief because I’m juggling travel and work this week.

If you want the inside scoop on my adventures you can always become a member. It’s basically a subscription option to fund the podcast and in exchange I produce member only audio. Mostly I’ve been doing book reviews of the various books I read but you never know what’s going to pop out of my fertile and active mind and into a member’s episode!

Look on the RunRunLive Website for the member links.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio

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I spent the week in Woodstock Oregon. You have to remember I’m from Boston. . I grew up in the 70’s Irish Catholic. The Portland area is in some ways way outside my comfort zone but in other ways strangely familiar.

It’s like being dropped into a friendly pot growing commune in 1972. Everybody is super politically correct and friendly but at the same time super alternative life style.

This is a place where you have to be careful not to walk too close to the road when walking down the sidewalk because cars will crash themselves stopping to let you cross. In Boston driving is a contact sport and pedestrians are the prize. In Portland it’s like some sort of baroque dance routine.

There is a coffee shop on every corner. But not a Starbucks. The villagers picket Starbucks and drive them out of town as the evil corrupting corporation. Every store sells craft beer. The hardware store sells craft beer. The tanning salon sells craft beer. If they’re not selling craft beer they are selling pot.

Everyone wears a ski hat. Everyone has purple hair, and piercings and tattoos and man-buns and Mohawks. But they are all super nice and homey. Every restaurant is a vegan restaurant. There are homeless people everywhere, but it’s hard to tell the homeless from the hipsters. There’s an actual game in Portland called ‘Homeless or hipster?’ where you try to guess.

Everything is made by orphaned panda cubs using baby koala tears. It rains almost every day.

As I sit here writing this, on the roof of a natural foods market – that sells craft beer and vegan appetizers – they have Kombucha on tap - there is a woman(?) with a goatee who has been discussing the nuances of an upcoming wiccan ceremony for 40 minutes like she’s talking about what kind of brownies to bring to the PTA meeting.

I love it here. You can be as weird as you want and everyone is friendly.

And that’s what I love about America.

And that’s why I go on adventures.

On with the show.

Section one –

No Section one.

Voices of reason – the conversation

IT STARTS WITH THE DECISION TO TRY!

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OUR PHILOSOPHY

Prs Fit is a community of athletes from all over the world. We are a team. Alone or together, from beginner 5k to Boston Marathon and 100 Miler, sprint triathlon to Kona, we strive and we conquer. Prs Fit lets you experience what we call Team and social fitness – connecting and motivating each through our one of a kind global team experience. No matter the weather, the circumstance, day after day, we provide a high quality training experience that produces results.

Be Healthy. Train Smart. Have Fun.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends you have pushed your hips forward through the end of episode 4-350 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

That was fun right? I’m definitely on a high cycle right now. I find myself at the end of my to-do list with no races on the calendar. Well, of course I always have races on the calendar. But, I’m going to heed Coach’s advice and lose a little fitness now. I decided not to double down. See? I’m coachable.

I have my yearly water stop volunteer duty at the Bay State Marathon coupled with the Groton Town Forest Trail race next weekend. At some point in November I have a turkey trot. Then in December is the Mill cities relay. Of course on New Year’s Eve day we have the newly official Groton Marathon. And on New Year ’s Day the Hangover Classic. That should keep me busy.

How about you all? What are you racing and training for? What’s your next adventure? What are you going to do? You’re not getting any younger. Now is as good a time as ever.

Find something the scares you as much as it inspires you and turn that weird thing into an adventure.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-349 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Today we chat with Chrissy Simmons who made the grave mistake of tell me on facebook that she ran a qualifying marathon using my MarathonBQ training plan. Of course I coerced her into an interview. The audio quality is a bit off because we were using the telephone to record. Most of the time I can use a skype plugin to record digital audio but we couldn’t swing it this time. Think of it as quaint trip down technology memory lane when we used to pick up the phone and call each other over twisted pair, copper wire, plain old telephones.

I like to talk to folks who have used the plan successfully because when I was writing it down I never really knew if it would work for other people or if it was just some strange manifestation of my own personal demons. I thoroughly tickles me to hear it working and to hear people learning the things I learned by going through it.

When you boil it down it’s really about speed. I’ve heard a couple interviews of Shalane and the other marathoners since the Olympics. They train up to 100 – 120 miles a week. Most of it varying forms of long tempo which is very specific to the marathon distance. In essence their training is specific practice for the race they are looking to run. They are training to find and stay on that edge of the pace where they maximize their results without crashing.

They don’t do a lot of speed work. Why? Because they are already fast. They are coming up from the track or the shorter distances. They already know how to run fast.

The amateur mid-packer marathoner is different. We may have never run track in school. We don’t know how to run fast. Even those of us who may have run 20-30 marathons. We know how to run, we just need to get faster if we want to qualify for Boston or any other race.

The key light bulb idea for you is this. Everyone is capable of running fast. They just have never practiced running fast. They don’t know how. That’s the main question I addressed in MarathonBQ; “How do I take 20 – 40 minutes off my marathon finishing time?” The answer logically is to run faster. But how? The answer is to practice, rigorously running faster. Simple.

Not all simple ideas are powerful, but most powerful ideas are simple.

In section one I’ll chat a bit about how to experiment with speed. Not just for the marathon, but in general as a component of your tool kit.

In section two I’m going to talk a bit about your personal finances. Why? Because I just went through a long avoided financial planning process and I think I’ve got it figured out and thought I’d do you the service of telling you what I learned.

So how’s my training going? As it turns out, fairly well. The big part of it is that I’ve stayed on the nutrition plan that I began as a 30-day project in August. I dipped under 170 pounds last week which is as light as I’ve been since the 1980’s and that really has had a positive effect on my training.

It has a dual impact. The healthy, lean diet has my body reacting better to workouts and the weight loss has put a pop back into my pace. The net result is I’m able to train at a pace that is a lot more familiar and comfortable to me and I’m guessing that I’ll benefit from that.

I raced the Spartan Beast last weekend and you should get a nice long race report on the podcast feed if everything works out. I followed up with a nice 3-hour, 21ish mile long run the weekend after. I still don’t have a lot of volume but I’m going to continue on this nutrition plan through the Portland Oregon marathon in October and see what happens.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio

Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews. One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clearoil absorbing facial wipes, to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew. There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process!

I have a course at home that I do most of my workouts on. It runs down some back roads that are fairly light in traffic. It’s rolling hills through neighborhoods. One of the modest 1950’s ranch houses I run by has had a sign for one of the current political candidates out in his front wall.

I say ‘his’ because I’ve seen him. He’s a white guy, about my age. The yard and the house are well kept but not overly fastidious. He drives an older model red Volvo sedan. He and his wife live there on that classic suburban ¼ acre lot. Doesn’t look like there are any kids.

He’s had his sign up since the primaries.

I shake my head when I run by. I wonder what has happened to him to make him so angry. I wonder what his narrative is.

I’ve often thought of starting one of my speeches by talking about all the challenges I’ve had to overcome in my life.

I say it with great seriously and gravitas. How hard it was to grow up white and male in the suburbs of the richest state on the richest country in the world. I’d spin my miserable yarn about how I had to cope with being healthy and well fed, being provided the best education by loving parents who were in a stable long term marriage.

I wonder how long the audience would stay with me?

These are confusing times for many. If you can look beyond that confusion. If you can look within. You will find abundance.

And I just wish more people would see that abundance.

Do you believe in abundance?

On with the show.

Section one –

Getting Faster -. http://runrunlive.com/getting-faster

Voices of reason – the conversation

Chrissy Simmons

I am a 34 year old living and working in Winchester, KY. I enjoy hiking and various outdoor activities, playing with my two dogs, and of course having drinks with good friends. But my primary hobby is definitely running.

I started running when I was 25 years old. With help from the well-known Couch to 5K training plan, I ran my first 5K. 3 years later in 2010, I ran my first marathon at the Cincinnati Flying Pig (4:38). Since then, I have run about 25 races that were marathon length or longer. Some of those were ultra-marathons, some trail marathons, some races I did just for fun, and some I did to check new states off the list. I would say that I honestly put effort into training for about 6-7, making gradual improvements to my finishing times by loosely following hybrids of various available training plans. Qualifying for Boston was a dream I had from the beginning and after finally breaking the 4:00 mark in 2014, the goal felt like it was in reach.

On 6/6/16, I started the MarathonBQ training plan with a goal to run a 3:35 marathon (BQ -5). And on 9/11/16, I finished the Erie Marathon with an official time of 3:34:36. Training with this plan during a hot, miserable summer was brutal at times but the final result was definitely worth it.

Section two

Outro

How about that? You, my abundant friends have sped your way to the end of Episode 4-349 of the RunRunLive podcast.

Do you feel faster? I do.

Next up for me is the Portland Or marathon in two weeks. I don’t know what to expect, but I’m hopeful. Travel marathons are always a bit of a wild card for me, but we’ll see how it goes. Depending on how things go in Oregon I may look for a November race. Other than that there is the tradition of volunteering at the BayState Marathon in October and either volunteering or running the Groton Town Forest 10 miler and then of course the traditional Ayer Fire Department 5K on Thanksgiving morning.

One new development is that I’m setting up a website for the Groton Marathon. I’ll read you the copy.

“The Groton Marathon was founded in December of 2013 by veteran runner Chris Russell. He was in the midst of a ‘marathon a month’ streak in honor of the Boston Marathon bombings from April 2013 to April 2014. The marathon he was scheduled to run in December was canceled due to snow. Frustrated at the lack of convenient distance events in the Massachusetts area, Chris grabbed a couple running buddies and created the first Groton Marathon to keep his streak alive.

The Run has repeated each year since. This year, 2016, we want to open up the race to a select number of applicants who are facing the same shortage of local distance events to keep their streaks alive. If a small, lightly managed run with veteran runners in December sounds like a fit for you, join us this year.”

…

That’s what I’m up to. It’s an abundant life. I don’t have to stop and ask permission if I can create my own race. I just have to do it. The way I’m able to continue to run and have adventures is simply that I believe I can, and I do it.

Frankly the biggest challenges we face in this era and in this season of our lives is that there is too much abundance. The challenge is how to focus your energy on the handful of things that bring value to you and your family and your community.

The Millennials talk about FOMO – ‘fear of missing out’. That’s a classic example of how abundance makes us crazy. There are too many good choices and we either freeze in place overwhelmed or flit from thing to thing like deranged dilettantes.

And then I’m out for a walk with Buddy in my woods. With the dry sun filtering through the green tree canopy and falling mottled in the leaf litter. The old stone walls delineating sheep pastures that long ago gave way to forest. We stop to breath in that good air. We listen to the skittering of squirrels and the chittering of birds…

Spartan up!

A first timer takes on the Beast.

The funniest line of the day was when I was flying down an open field descent passing people in big clumps. I yelled “Come on people you’re being passed by a 54 year old guy!”

A lady looks at me sideways and responds “Yeah, but not a normal one.”

I took that as a compliment.

The great herds of hikers I passed were mostly pretty cranky about it. I don’t get it. If you’re out there you might as well enjoy yourself. I suppose if you’re at the end of your rope and some hairy, half-naked old guy flies by yelling “Weeeeeee!” it might piss you off.

…

It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was a bit out of my element but I raced the Spartan Beast as best I could and did relatively well. I met my primary goal of not dying and my secondary goal of not injuring myself. I did get nicked up and was a bit sore. It will be a couple weeks before all the bruises, scrapes and scratches heal. But nothing broken or sprained.

I ran this event as a bit of a lark because they reached out to me and offered an entry. My daughter Teresa wanted to come along and do the sprint so I signed her up too and I was glad for the company. We made the drive up to Killington, VT Saturday morning. I raced on Saturday and she raced Sunday morning so it was another nice endurance adventure weekend for us.

Having been offered a complimentary entry I figured I’d get my money’s worth and run one of the events with a higher difficulty level. When you look at the advertised events it starts with the Sprint, moves up to the Super and then up to the Beast. The Sprint is advertised as 5k distance, the Super is a 10K and the Beast is around a ½ marathon. There’s a special shirt / 3-part medal if you do all three.

There are also longer events like running the ‘Ultra-Beast’ which is the Beast twice and the Agoge which is a special multi-day event.

Not knowing much about Spartan races I signed up for the Beast event which is listed as 13 miles and 30 obstacles. I mean, it’s only a ½ marathon, right? How long could it take? How hard could it be?

I have my best adventures when I don’t pay attention too much.

I’m in decent shape this summer and could jog any given ½ marathon in under 2 hours so I figured I’d do this in under 4 hours, right?

Two weekends previously I ran the very difficult Wapack Trail race which was 18 miles of technical single track over 4 mountains, twice in just about 4 hours. At the end of July I ran a hot trail marathon in around 5 hours and that’s twice as far as this Beast, right? You see my logic here.

I looked at the Spartan training plans and they were, frankly, terrifying with hundreds of burpees, squats and pullups. It was like something out of a gladiator movie. Or that old “Monty Python sketch about Ken the Boxer” I watched a few videos of races and it looked reasonably engaging but some of the athletes were clearly not in the best of shape.

I asked Coach to give me some Spartan specific training but, honestly, he thought it was stupid idea. He basically gave me the same training he always does, maybe with a bit more yoga and core work. I can honestly say I think I did more burpees on the course then I had done in all my training.

To summarize, I went into this Spartan Beast race having no idea what I was getting into and without training for it. Guess what? I did really well.

That’s right. I excelled. I came in 10th in my age group out of 106 old guys. I was 220th out of 2296 males and I was 252 out of 3,213 overall. And I think that’s just the finishers. They pulled a large number of people off the course due to injury and time limits.

How is this possible? How did my tired, old marathoner butt out perform all these millennial cross-fitters?

It’s simple. I actually trained for the race. They didn’t.

It turned out the obstacles were 1% of the course. 99% of it was technical, mountain, trail running. Well it was technical, mountain, trail running for me. It was a miserable death march for all those well-chiseled, millennial cross-fitters who spent their training flipping tires and doing hundreds of pullups.

I can honestly say, with a large dose of irony, that I was probably the only one who trained well and course specifically in the whole crowd. I was able to fake the obstacles and play to my strengths. I just rolled off Wapack and the Indy Trail marathon. I WAS trained for this race.

I think another advantage I had was a certain familiarity with long races and suffering. I can go pretty deep into the suffer locker when I need to and still compete. I got the impression that these folks weren’t as familiar with the sweet suffering of a multi-hour endurance event.

Don’t get me wrong. If I had to compete in the global tire-flipping, box-jumping games I wouldn’t last 60 seconds. I just happened to luck into a course that was basically a long mountain race.

Still, it took me 6 ½ hours to get through the course. Mostly because of the 3-4 near vertical ascents of the mountain we did. It was slow going. Especially in the last couple hours when I was out of fuel.

What I discovered, (as I was getting ready in the parking lot), was that the average open participant takes 7-9 hours. Really? I had no intention of staying out there that long. I told Teresa 4-6 hours max. I mean it’s only 13 miles.

The organizers told all of the waves starting after noon to carry headlamps and glow sticks but I thought that was just more ridiculous Spartan hyperbole. It turns out it wasn’t. When I was leaving the venue that night you could see the long line of headlamps trooping along the slopes on the mountain.

Those technical descents would be really difficult in the dark. Glad I wasn’t out there. There was some controversy because they let people start the Beast up until 2:00 PM, knowing the average cross fitter takes 7-9 hours. Then they pulled them all off the course at 9:00. Those people were a bit miffed at having paid a couple hundred bucks and traveled to Vermont only to get forcibly DNF’ed.

This was the ‘Open’ division. There is also a ‘Competitive’ and an ‘Elite’ division. I toyed with entering as competitive, but then I got over myself and went with open. The advantage of the competitive division is less traffic on the course and people generally know what they’re doing. The advantage to the open division is that they are far less strict about how you approach the obstacles. The volunteers really didn’t care if we did obstacles correctly or did all the penalty burpees for not completing the obstacles. I think I could have run around the obstacles and no one would have stopped me.

…

It was a nice, warm sunny day when Teresa and I rolled into the venue. We had to pay $10 for parking (on both days). There were shuttle buses to the starting area.

I got kitted up before we went on the bus. Looking at the weather I decided to go shirtless. I had the same Hoka road shoes that I used in my other trail races. I had my water back pack – I had considered trying to ‘live off the land’ but there didn’t look to be much support on the course and I didn’t want to run out of water. I had three old Gu’s that I threw in the pack for fuel.

I didn’t want to carry a bunch of stuff because of the obstacles. Any extra stuff would have to be dragged through the course. Instead of a hat I made a hippy-helmet out of an old bandana with a chilli pepper motif. I didn’t wear a watch or sunglasses. I put my wedding ring in a zippered pocket in my pack – I have lost a little weight and it’s not so tight anymore and I didn’t want it coming off in an obstacle. .

They made you wear a headband with your number on it and a timing chip on your wrist. I put on a pair of Zensah calf sleeves as well. Everyone I saw had either calf sleeves or tall calf socks. I figured they knew something. I threw a pair of running gloves in the pack in case my hands needed protection. I went with my tried and true Brooks baggie shorts with the liner and the man-thong tech undies. I greased up the pointy bits. That was it. We were off.

Teresa helpfully painted a large Spartan logo on my belly, because, hey, when in Rome. I joined the queue-up for the 12:15 open Beast wave. There looked to be around 100 or so competitors in my wave. The first thing they do is make your climb over a 4 foot wall to get into the corral. That’s a nice touch. Then an announcer whips the crowd into a frenzy.

I was chatting with some folks who came in from Ohio, a husband and wife and their friend. I related how it was my first Spartan race and I hadn’t trained much but was a runner. They said “You’ll be fine, just don’t go out too fast.” But their eye’s seemed to say “you have no idea how much trouble you’re in.”

With much hoopla were sent en masse on our way. The first obstacles were 4 foot high beams that you had to vault. I stopped to help a woman who could get over them. In retrospect, she probably didn’t’ finish.

One of the early obstacles was to crawl under barbed wire. There were two of these on the course. I found these hard because it tore up my knees to army crawl through the dirt. I had to take my pack off and push it ahead of me, which was a pain and got it all dirt covered. Many people roll like logs under the barbed wire. This seemed to work for them but they kept kicking me in the head in the process as I was moving pretty slow.

My strategy on the obstacles was to get as much help as I could, take my time and not get injured.

Another signature obstacle early in the race is the Bucket Carry. You get handed a plastic 5 gallon bucket. You have to fill it up with gravel and carry it up, around and down the hill. It turns out all my yoga and core was good for these carrying things – or maybe it’s all the years I’ve spent running through airports with bags – but I found this really easy and you can see me smiling in the photos. I’m having a blast.

There were a constant series of walls you have to climb over of different heights. I managed the shorter ones, but with my ability to do 3 pullups I had to get help getting over the tall ones. In the open division getting help is encouraged. Teamwork is part of the Spartan value system. Good thing too, because without help I would not have made it through many of those obstacles.

It was a warm day. The course was dry from lack of rain. I was glad to have the water pack because I was working hard and sweating.

They did manage to engineer in some mud pits in the second half of the race, including one that you had to go completely underwater to get under an obstacle, but these were quite manageable.

The big water obstacle was an actual open water swim about half way around the course. I say ½ way because it was about 6 miles in but time-wise this was probably 1/3 of the way through. Like many ultra-type events they back loaded much of the difficulty and the back half of the course took much longer. It’s a mental game. They like to throw hard stuff at you when you’re tired and think you’re almost done.

I knew the race played this way from reading Joe’s book. One manifestation was to have an obstacle right after every hard climb. Another was to have nonsensical mile markers along the course. The actual distance was somewhere between 14 – 15 miles. If you were watching for mile markers you were playing a fools game because they were purposefully random to mess with you.

The water obstacle was a lake near the start line around 6 miles in. You hit this after running (well I ran) down the mountain and you’re well warmed up by then. It’s preceded by a tall climbing obstacle. These climbing obstacles were all super easy, unless you were afraid of heights. I joked that we had playground equipment in the 70’s when I was a kid that was worse.

When you got to the shore line they stuffed you into one of those big orange life jackets. Which, prevents people from drowning, but also prevents those of us with a background in triathlon from swimming. The water was advertised as 50 degrees Fahrenheit. More hyperbole. I would guess it was around 65 or 70 but cold enough that when people go from running down the mountain into the water they immediately cramp up to holy hell.

I started cramping too, but knew what was up and just tried to relax my legs. I wasn’t getting any propulsion from my kicking anyhow with the shoes on. The best strategy seemed to be to float on your back and use your arms to avoid the leg cramps and the lean on giant life jacket.

When you got to the middle there was a bridge with rope ladders hanging from it. This was called the Tarzan bridge. You were supposed to climb the rope ladder and swing across dangling rope hand holds to the other side. Swimming in cold water and climbing the rope ladder was no problem but I just don’t have the hand grip strength to swing from ropes and plummeted back into the water after my second grip.

This is where I ended up doing my first 30 burpee penalty. I ended up doing 90 on-course penalty burpees. Twice for these dangly obstacles and once for being a total spaz in the spear throw.

I did all the burpees I was assigned. I didn’t do them well, but I did them. Mine were more like the down-dogs I had trained for than the clean Spartan burpee. Another advantage of being in the open division. Then they made us swim/wade another ¼ mile to get back on the trail and the really hard climbing that was to come.

One obstacle I am tremendously proud of is the rope climb. This is just what it sounds like. You climb a rope 20 feet and ring a bell. The last time I had done this was in 8th grade. And as a chubby kid with no upper body strength I was awful at it. But this time I wanted to do it. I set my goal to at least try every obstacle and give it my best.

For some reason I had out run the pack and was alone at the rope climb. I chose a rope. I stood and slowed my breathing. I took a deep breath and centered my hands to my heart with my eyes closed. Then I climbed that rope and rang that bell like a champ. I may have screamed “F-You, rope” in some sort of mindless exorcism of eight grade demons.

After the water obstacle the majority of the competitors seemed to be spent. They were all walking. Every time I came to a flat spot in the trail there would be 20-30 people lounging around resting. Not me. When the trail opened up I was psyched to have running room and took off at a trot. Why walk? You’re going to get there faster running and you use a different muscle set.

I had been choking down a Gu every hour or so when I felt my energy flagging. And they helped. I also brought some Endurolytes with me in a sealed plastic canister but they got all broken up from the jostling but they were gone about 3 hours in.

Due to my lack of proper preparation and poor expectation setting I brought enough supplies for a 4 hour race and ended up going 6 ½ hours. I was hitting the wall in those last couple hours. Nothing I haven’t felt before. Even in my current lean state I’ve got plenty of fat to fall back on. Not really much I could do except keep moving forward.

Then it got hard. About 3 ½ to 4 hours into the race we headed up the final climb. Up until this point we had climbed parts of the mountain 2-3 times already. It alternated from trooping up the ski slope to scrambling up some gnarly single path technical in the woods between the slopes. And when I say gnarly I mean it. Very steep, loose dirt, roots, rocks and trees. In places you could use your hands to pull yourself up. They even had ropes in particularly steep spots.

What made these technical sections hard was you could only go as fast as the person in front of you and there were few opportunities to pass. Technically it’s known as “the theory of constraints” – which is a fancy way of saying everyone moves as fast as the slowest person. You’d have to pick your spots and try to jump by people. Otherwise it was a conga line of slow moving feet. It made it hard to choose a good line and get a rhythm going.

The one potential upside was all the young cross fitter booty in cross fitter booty shorts I had to eyeball from six inches away all day long. That wasn’t awful. They may not know how to trail run but they look good in their clothes.

Going down was the same gnarly single path but you could build up momentum and get by people easier. A couple times I tucked in behind the ultra-runners who seemed to have some sort of implied passing right and just followed them. Once I figured it out I was just brazenly running the left fringe of the trail blowing by people by the score.

I’d yell “Ding! Ding!” or “Out of control old guy!” (that got a couple chuckles) or “Coming through!” but overall they had no sense of humor and yelled at me unless I said “on your left!” I’m not used to people being so cranky at a trail race. But these weren’t trail runners. And this is the big reason I placed relatively high. They walked. I ran. And I have to tell you it was fun bouncing through the woods, swinging from trees and passing people.

Some of the open field descents were too steep to run. You had to do that shuffle hop movement where you’re basically out of control and just touching the ground to slow down every once in a while.

This was dicey because the pack was thick and everyone else, especially later in the race was not handling the descents with much dignity. Apparently they were having knee and quad burnout because they were fighting the downhills. They were stopping a lot, walking backwards or sideways and even scooching down on their bums. I had to avoid all this.

There were a couple steep sections where people would kick rocks loose and then those rocks would roll down the hill at velocity like 2-3 pound missiles. Everyone would scream “Rock”. You’d hear “Rock!” and then “Owe! That really hurt!”

I made it through all the hard stuff without falling except once in the woods where I went elbow deep into a mud hole where a spring came out of the mountainside.

Then as I was careening down one of the last descents in the open slope I caught a toe. I was in open ground so I tried to tuck and roll and it worked I popped back up on my feet. But, in the process I slammed my shin and my elbow on some rocks. The shin really hurt. There wasn’t much I could do about it. I pulled up my calf sleeves so I wouldn’t have to look at the wound, gritted my teeth and kept running – hoping I didn’t do too much damage.

Then there was the last climb. By this point we were well into the race. I was well out of fuel and running on fumes. It was a super steep 2 mile hike straight up the gondola path to the top of the mountain. This was a death march for everybody. It was just a long conga line 3-4 across slogging up the slope. I will admit to stopping and resting a number of times on this ascent.

When we final clambered out into open ground at the very top of the mountain it was in the clouds and windy. The spectators up there had coats on and were shivering. The temperature dropped and being mostly naked you would think I’d be cold, but I was well into suffer mode and the cold air woke me up a bit. Now I knew we were done climbing and the finish was down at the bottom of the mountain somewhere.

Of course there was an obstacle at the top of the mountain that had to do with carrying logs like suitcases which was no problem. I caught my breath and took off down the fire road. I leaned on my training again, cleaned up my form and ran. I used my core and it felt awesome to be moving again after all that slow hiking.

…

Coach kept telling me not to worry about the race, that the Kardashians could do it. Could the Kardashians do it? Yeah, if they had enough time.

Overall on the course I saw a number of people that really didn’t look like they should be doing a race this hard. I think the positive is that assuming you started early enough you could take as much time as you wanted. You could take all day and work as a team and in that sense anybody could do it.

I did see people getting taken off the course for injuries. Mostly knees and ankles. I think some of them may have been faking an injury to get of the damn mountain!

For all the out of shape types there was definitely the lean, cross fit archetype as well. Lots of compact, fit looking people with six pack abs. That’s the Spartan community. This race was the culmination of a long journey for many of them, from the sprint, to the super and now their ultimate conquest of the beast. I met people from all over the country. I passed one guy who had flown in from Australia.

I was wondering if I would see anyone with phones or earbuds on the course. I know the Millennials love their phones but the obstacles make having wires a bad idea. I didn’t see any wires. I did see a couple wireless headphones, but the one surprising thing I came across was speakers. At least 4 people I passed had speakers strapped to their packs and were blasting music. I don’t know how they managed the water obstacles with those.

Mostly it was millennial hip-hop music that I am too old to appreciate and I remember some Blink182 late in the race but I passed a dude up one of the scrambles and he was blasting some Lynyrd Skynrd. I obligingly yelled “Whatdayall wanna hear?. Free bird!” He said it was random and the next song might be Christian music. We all agreed this climb would be an excellent place to convert people – the kind of place that made you want to ask God for help.

So yeah, that’s a new one on me. Speakers strapped to your backpack in a race.

To finish up the narrative I got to the bottom of the mountain, ready to be done with it. But they put 5 obstacles in the last ¼ mile just to mess with you. spazzed out on the spear throw and had to do 30 burpees which left me totally drained for the subsequent log carry. I managed the Atlas ball carry. I had no hope of the last dangly rope thing and did another 30 burpees (these took a while because I was running on fumes). Then over the last A-frame climby thing and a final leap across the fire and I was done.

The picture I had of myself leaping over the fire in my head was much more flattering than the actual picture. I look like a hobo fleeing a structure fire. When we were watching the finish earlier some fit young dude literally did a flip over the fire. That is styling. Not me. I’m the dirty hobo.

Was it hard? Yeah. Was it the hardest thing I’ve ever done? No way.

People who have worn their Garmins on the course clock it at 14.83 miles. They also clock 6,700 feet of elevation gain. That’s more than a mile. That’s more than Wapack. That’s more than the Grand Canyon. So, if you want to run this version of the Spartan race go get your lederhosen and start mountain training.

The man who won the elite version of my race on Saturday was a 26 year old who did it in 3:32. The woman was a 29 year old who did it in 4:34.

In my open division the winner came in at 4:15 the very last runner took 17 hours to cover the course. That’s a long day. The average looks to be in the 8-9 hour range.

Just so everyone knows I want credit for the memorization obstacle. The way that works is that you have to memorize a number early in the race and they are supposed to ask you for it later in the race. Both Teresa and I had to memorize the number, and I took great pride in knowing that my familiarity with memorization techniques would give me the clear advantage. But no one ever askes either of us for our numbers! For the record Quebec-949-5373.

We slept in an old hotel in White River Junction and grabbed some barbeque and a craft brew. I earned it. I had a bit of a hard time sleeping because I had so many open scrapes and wounds every time I rolled over my whole body lit up like tearing a Band-Aid off.

Teresa tackled the sprint the next day and due to robust genetics she placed 1st in her age group, proving all Millennials aren’t soft. I was getting around fine. My quads were a bit sore but nothing like after a hard road marathon. I could tell I went deep into the glycogen stores because I had the odd struggle with finding the right nouns.

As the week has progressed the scrapes are healing. The nastiest is a rope burn on the back of my ankle from one of the traversing obstacles. I was oddly body sore all over like I had been rolled up in a blanket and beaten with sticks. Nothing hurt badly, but everything hurt a little.

I’m content with 6 ½ hour finish. Will I go back? Maybe for the shorter races to get the other 2 pieces of the medal and complete the ‘trifecta’. After all I started with the hard one.

Teresa and I had a nice adventure. I got a firsthand look at the Spartan races. I don’t know about all the courses but this one, this beast in Killington, ran a bit like an ultra, maybe a 30k in effort level. If you’re looking for something interesting go ahead and try a Spartan.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-348 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I ran a bit long last episode with Mike. I was up against a deadline so I just let it slide. I’ll try to better this time. You may have noticed I started slipping cookies into the end of the show after the outro. A ‘cookie’ in the lingo of the podcasting ‘biz’ is a blooper that I find particularly engaging. Like last week when I either wrote into my script or spell checked in that Australopithecines had ‘disposable’ thumbs!

That’s just too funny not to share.

Today we speak with Kristy Jo. I love that name. It’s like something from a TV show. Kristy shares some very good tips and tricks around her Power Foods nutrition plan. I read through her book and it’s quite sensible.

I know this whole weight loss nutrition thing is a real challenge for so many people and I thought we’d give you some pointers from someone who has been through it all and get her approach.

I have been steadily losing weight as well. I wrapped up my 30 day plan at the end of August but decided to keep it going. My training is going really well at the lighter weight. I want to see where I can get to by the Portland Marathon next month.

Last episode I erroneously said I was down to 170 pounds. That was incorrect. What I meant was 175 pounds, which is still good, because I started at 185ish. I’m currently in the low 170’s with a body fat percentage of in the 10’s. Body fat percentage is a much better metric than weight or BMI. A good range for a guy my age is in the low teens.

All that aside what I’m really pleased with is how much better workouts feel and how well my heart is responding. That’s how I define ‘feeling healthy’ and that’s what I’m going for.

We have a wonderfully hewn, well crafted, and individually designed for your specific needs - show for you today. It’s a thing of beauty this show. I had it hand crafted by virgin baby koalas just for you.

In section one I’ll answer some rapid fire running questions. In section 2 I’ll talk about the Wapack Trail race I ran over Labor Day weekend.

I was wondering if anyone was going to write in about my math problem when I told the story of the store clerk in Atlanta. And I wasn’t disappointed. For the record, I know that 30% plus 20% can be calculated 2 different ways. When you combine a 20% discount with a 30% discount the answer is either 50% or 44% depending how you apply the discounts. Glad to see you’re paying attention. Makes me feel loved.

There are a billion podcasts these days aren’t there? It’s funny how the cycles turn. Someone should do some research on it. First it was just us hobbyists and the big news outlets. Now everyone with a platform has gotten the message that a podcast is a must-have channel – especially the internet marketing folks.

Thank you for joining me on my journey. You don’t have to. I’m doing it because I like doing it. It allows me to practice my creativity and production. It forces me to think critically about topics. It allows me to interact with people I find interesting. I explore topics and people that are interesting to me, that’s why I can keep producing for 9+ years and 350 shows. I do it for myself.

At the same time, whenever I create anything I think about the audience. I ask the question “Why do you care?” This keeps me from getting too wrapped up in myself and allows me to add value. If you don’t care I’m just an annoying old dude that you sat next to on a long flight and won’t shut up even though you put your headphones in and pretended to sleep. I don’t want to be that guy.

I do have a membership option to defray the cost because I’m a capitalist at heart and not a charity! I’m working on a proper set of books but as near as I can figure I spend about $1,500 a year on the podcast. Consider buying a membership. I’m still working on a separate iTunes feed for it. My guy in Nigeria can’t quite figure out how to make the remote header calls work with my wordpress plugin, but I’m working on it. If you’ve known me for any length of time you know I’m patient. When I decide to do something it takes on the inevitability of a glacier.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio

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How about some useful running information? How about that? Instead of all this waffling on about the creative act? OK

One of the workouts Coach gave me this week was a medium effort hill workout. Many times you will run longer or faster hill workouts for leg strength or as a type of speed workout or threshold workout. That’s not what this particular workout is for. This is a workout to practice form.

Hills are a great place to practice form because running uphill naturally forces you up onto your forefoot, to take shorter, more rapid strides and to lift your knees. Hills bring the form to you.

For the medium effort hill repeat you are only doing 30 seconds. That’s long enough to get into your form but not long enough to stress you. You do the workout at medium effort, so maybe a 7-8 on a scale of 1-10.

People always ask ‘how steep should the hill be?’ For these medium effort repeats you can actually answer that question. When you get into the repeat itself your form should be clean. If you’re having to lean forward or struggling to get your feet turning over – the hill is too steep.

When you run the repeat focus on pushing off rapidly from the forefoot. Push your hips forward. Run tall. Keep your chin up, your shoulders high and loose and your hands high and loose. Focus on the form, not the effort. Don’t carry anything in your hands.

Jog down the hill and don’t start another rep until your heart rate settles down. I usually leave my bottle at the bottom of the hill. I stop when I get back, take a drink, walk a bit and when my HR falls under zone 2 I’ll ease into the next rep. I also find a stick and scratch a tally mark into the dirt after every rep. It makes a game out of it.

Do a set of 10-15 of these. These are great, especially if you are trying to clean up your form. Like I said a 4-6% hill will automatically help you clean up your form. And I’m pretty sure the sine of that angle is the opposite over the hypotenuse, but I could be wrong.

Practice makes perfect.

Do your practice.

On with the show.

Section one –

Voices of reason – the conversation

Kristy Jo Hunt

My Skype is "kristyjohunt."

My home website is www.body-buddies.com but there is much under construction with funnels, and I fear not everything leads back to one congruent space. I would love to talk about my background with long distance running and why I got into it (disordered eating and thinking it would solve weight issues) to why I got out of it (chronic pain with my 50-degree scoliosis that I pushed through the pain due to the disordered eating habits and FEAR), as well as my coaching of long-distance athletes with meal structure and timing that we have found to be very successful and optimize their body weight and energy for better times.

I will put my bio below:

Kristy Jo Hunt is a Certified Personal Trainer, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, published author, and natural Women’s Figure Competitor. After overcoming over a decade of disordered eating battles, she began a Facebook page in 2012. This Facebook page grew to be a full-blown education-based body transformation company called Body Buddies. Her team of coaches helps people correct health issues, overcome disordered eating, achieve their goals, and reach their desired aesthetics.

She is the author of the book series and recipe book line, The Power Foods Lifestyle, and founded the company, Body Buddies, a transformation and education coaching system. Body Buddies teaches strategic implementation of scientific principles using psychological profiling to help people make sustainable changes in their nutrition and fitness efforts. She hosts online group challenges, coaches clients one-on-one, and teaches seminars for athletic teams, corporations, and church groups. As a way to help many people for free, she hosts the Body Buddies podcast, YouTube Channel, and Social Media feeds where she shares tips and tricks to nutrition, exercise, and mindset training.

Her greatest happiness comes from watching others succeed and overcome obstacles that previously prevented them from reaching their goals.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends you have nibbled your way on proteins, vegetables and carbohydrates through to the end of episode 4-348 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Are you full? Are you satiated? Did you have to unbutton your jeans so all that good info would fit?

I’ve got a short turn around now and I’m heading out to do the Spartan Beast in Killington Vt. I’m dragging my youngest along and she’s going to do the sprint on Sunday.

I was looking at the instructions and anyone who starts the Beast after noon needs to carry a headlamp and two glow sticks…And they pull you off the course if you haven’t finished by 9:00 pm. Really? I have no intention of being on that course for 9 hours. Am I missing something?

Coach is still trying to talk me out of it so I can focus on the Portland marathon on October 9th. What I like about him is that he’s old-school. He thinks every race is an Olympic qualifier. But, I’m at the point in my life where I have to try new things and have some fun too.

That being said if I can maintain the diet and come out of Portland strong I’ll look at the calendar and see if there isn’t something serious to train for. I’ve got to figure out if we are going to do the Groton Marathon again this year.

…

Many of you are running your goal races now or over the next few weeks. Good luck with those. Remember that the hay is in the barn and there’s nothing you can do in the last couple weeks to make up training.

As you are in your taper towards your race you can use a couple of the things we talked about here to help you stay sane. As your training load gets lighter you have an opportunity and the time to do some of the fine-tuning things.

Think about practicing the mediation and visualization that we’ve talked about.

Work in some easy yoga every other day to stretch and strengthen your machine.

Do some meal planning around your taper weeks to go into the race lean and strong with a lot of energy.

That’s how you apply the tools from the conversations we have here.

That’s the real trick with all the content available to you. You’re like a DJ. You are the creative genius for your life. You take all this stuff in and mix it to make your own sound, your own movie and craft your own story.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-347 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we are going to reconnect with our old friend Mike the DirtDawg who has been doing a lot of useful work around mindfulness in his life, with his students and in his community. I chat with him about some practical ways we can use mindfulness in our lives and some basic, easy ways to implement it.

In section one I’m going to zoom in on how meditation or mindfulness can help amateur athletes. In section two I’m going to do a quick summary of how a 30 day project works and how you can use it to get some traction in your life.

Because, as I write this I’m wrapping up my latest 30 day plan. I tend to try to do a bunch of things in parallel when I do 30 day projects. This one I was trying to get up early, clean up my nutrition, avoid alcohol and work on my next book project.

It went very well, except for the last couple days where I was on vacation – that always causes some hiccups in the process. But I managed to keep the damage minimal while not being bad company. Up until that point though I had lost a bunch of weight and had mat all my goals and felt fantastic.

I didn’t get as much work done on my book project as I would have liked, but all in all it was a good month for me.

I was particularly pleased with this because I took a 2 week break from running at the same time I took on the 30-day project. I kicked off the project on the 1st of August the day after my trail marathon. The Achilles was hurting so coach gave me a week off. After a week I ran once and felt awful. I ended up walking back from that run. That run was day 7 or 8 of the 30 day project, and as I will explain, that is when the project sucks the most. I was in a bad place with no energy.

My runs have been awful all summer. I just felt sick, had no energy and was hating my runs. I got them done but it was a struggle. That’s one of the reasons I decided to put my foot down and use a 30-day project to clean up. I decided to clean up my nutrition and with Rachel’s help rebuild my healthy biome.

After the day-7 run debacle Coach smelled over-training and gave me another week off. Not off, but off from running. That’s when I started to turn the corner. About 14 days in he finally gave me the green light and told me do an easy 1:15 run.

At this point I was lighter, healthier and well rested. I decided to go out at night after work. The night was cool, around 60, and the humidity had let up. I left everything at home and just wore a pair of racing shorts. No phone, no bottle, no shirt – just my Garmin and the heart strap.

And - Oh my god! I felt weightless. I couldn’t control myself and was literally flying. I didn’t even start to feel any tiredness until the last long climb up to my house. Coach was a bit peeved when I posted my ‘easy’ run and it turned out to be a 8+ mile marathon pace tempo run. But really, sometimes you just can’t help yourself.

The other thing I’m noticing is that my HR is staying down. It’s behaving nicely and just the way I would expect it to.

My Achilles is still a little sore but I’m working it. My runs since then have been fairly fabulous. Plus, since I’m getting up early anyhow I can knock them out in the morning without much suffering. It’s all good. The wave is cresting again.

I’m going to see if I can keep the nutrition going until October. In 30 days I got down to 175 pounds which is very light for me. I think with a little focus I could get under 170 and I haven’t been there, ever. I’m curious to see what that would do for my racing.

By the way, when I say ‘Clean Nutrition’ I mean eating 98% healthy, whole food, nothing packaged, lots of fruit and veg and nuts. An occasional hit of fish or meat if I feel like I’m not getting enough calories. I’ve cut out fried food, bread, most dairy and as much sugar as I can find on the food labels – although sometimes the bastards sneak some by me.

When I set up the project with Rachel I told her my focus was not to lose weight but to get healthy. But, as usual, once you focus on eating clean and healthy, the weight just comes off naturally. It’s not due to a lack of calories per se, just a different mix. Remember, the first two weeks of this I wasn’t even running.

There are a couple things I’m doing slightly different this time around. First, I’m trying to get enough healthy fats. I include olive oil in my salads and other meals as a condiment, and I mix a spoonful of coconut oil into my oatmeal in the morning – because apparently coconut oil is the new superfood.

Second, we’ve been experimenting with lots of probiotic foods like KimChi, Sauerkraut, pickles, organic honey and homemade fermented beet juice. This time of year I’m getting fresh chard and cukes from my garden too and they come with some helpful organisms riding along from the great outdoors. You can get useful critters from any of the fresh from field produce available this time of year.

Check your labels to find certified organic or live culture foods. To be clear, I don’t mean the well-known yoghurts and other probiotic labeled dairy products which, in my humble opinion, are just another packaged food ploy to stuff more dairy and sugar down your throat.

I don’t know if it is good or bad but my innards are a lot happier now after a month or so of working the probiotic, healthy food plan into my life. It’s amazing how large a change you can make in a short amount of time with a little focus.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio

Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews. One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques.

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clearoil absorbing facial wipes, to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew. There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process!

I was reading the New York Times in the airport on my way back from vacation. There was an article in there about Lucy, the famous Australopithecine. They found Lucy’s fossilized bones in Kenya in 1974 and it really kicked off the study and understanding of all the different branches of the hominid family tree since.

Lucy was a small, juvenile, female Australopithecine that lived in the forested grasslands of Africa a few million years ago. They weren’t humans in the sense that we think of Homo sapiens - the thinking ape. They were a side branch or transitional form of hominid that seems to have been moving out of the trees to walk upright on the ground.

According to the news, it seems Lucy’s 2M+ year-old fossilized bones were making a tour of the US. Some scientists took the opportunity to create a thorough CAT scan of them. In this way they could get detailed digital images that they could analyze without having to have the bones themselves.

One of the things that they discovered is a number of compression fractures. These are the type of fractures you get when you hit something hard, like in car accident or a fall from a great height. They postulate that poor little Lucy met her demise by falling out of a tall tree.

I question these conclusions. I don’t think anything so mundane happened. I see the forensic evidence and I think Lucy was definitely into extreme sports. She was probably wing-suit flying off the ridge from mount Kilimanjaro or paragliding over the volcanoes. Maybe she was caught in a sudden gust of wind or was rattled by an ill-timed tremor from imbibing too much Red Bull. Without fully developed opposable thumbs she couldn’t hang on and she crashed.

I’m no scientist but I have watched many episodes of CSI Las Vegas and that’s where the data leads me. It was like an Australopithecine version of Point Break. They had some mad-dog skills and liked to live on the edge those Australopithecines. Live fast, die young, leave a fossilized pile of bone fragments – that was their motto.

On with the show.

Section one –

Voices of reason – the conversation

Mike Croy serves as a high school principal for special education students who have been diagnosed with severe emotional impairments. His area of expertise lies in working with at risk students and families for the past 20 years. Mike is driven to serve by his belief that we are all works in progress and the key is to keep moving forward.

Mike began teaching yoga and mindfulness/meditation classes to his students as a result of him obtaining his 200 RYT (Yoga Teacher Training) and has since started to offer it to staff and adults to help others find the space to be mindful and breathe in a hyper connected world. He is also a 24x marathoner and has completed several ultramarathons including the Burning River 100.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends you have mindfully sat and watched your body’s breath through the end of episode 4-347 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Ohmm…

Ohmm Padni ma…

Yeah. Rock solid. Good job.

I’m rolling off the long weekend and heading down to Atlanta to work. I was out in Chicgao on holidays for a long weekend. In my career I’ve been there many times but it was fun to go as a tourist. I got up every morning and went out to run around the lakefront and Grant Park. Two out of Three days it poured on me in the morning. But that was ok. I just took my shirt off and enjoyed myself.

I did a 2:20 long run Sunday morning and the path was packed with Chicago Marathon aspirants and club runners. The triathletes were swimming their workouts in the lake. It just so happened that the Chicago Triathlon was also going on over at Grant Park. There was a constant stream of bicycles on Lakeshore drive the whole time I was out.

We took the architecture tour up the river one night, went to Second City another night and then caught a Cubs game another night. We walked through the Chicago Institute of Art one day as well. Like I said it poured rain, but only while I was out running.

I’ll share one image with you. Monday morning I was running a fartlek run. I got up a 6:00 AM local time, ran down the river trail, crossed over on the Lakeshore Drive bridge, ran out to the end of Navy pier and circled around to head north on the lakeshore path.

It was early, overcast and humid. It hadn’t started to rain yet. The lake was calm and the triathletes were cruising in the shallows parallel to the shore making little wave here and there. There are some sections of beach and sections of concrete along here as the path winds along the coves and points.

I passed the remnants of a beach volleyball tournament that was being disassembled. Not too many runners were out yet. Bicyclists were making their way inbound to the city. Early morning maintenance crews were picking up trash and readying the day’s projects.

At one point as I ran along the cement wall I could look down and see into the water of Lake Michigan. It was clear enough for me to see the sandy bottom and I had to stop because there was a 3-5 pound bass going about its business there immune to my strivings.

A few minutes later as I pushed north, throwing in occasional 2 minute surges, the heavens opened up with a warm downpour. This broke the humidity and washed the sweat from my body. My shoes squished along as I weaved around the deeper puddles. Another good morning run in the windy city.

“Life Moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while you could miss it.” Ferris

…

Next up for me is the Wapack Trail race 18 miler. I’m just going to try to have fun and enjoy myself. If I can get in under 4 hours and not hurt myself that will be great! After that I have that Spartan race the next weekend. I’m going to take Teresa up with me and spend the night. My Beast race is on Saturday and she’s going to do the sprint version on Sunday.

Coach wanted me to skip it and focus on the Portland Marathon in October. If I stay on my nutrition plan and manage to squeeze some training in and stay healthy I could do well out there. I’m not worried about it though. I think my days of overwrought expectations are over!

…

Speaking of overwrought expectations, on one of the planes on the way to Chicago a lady next to me was reading “Fast Girl” – Suzy Favor-Hamilton’s book. I asked if it was any good and she said she was done with it and gave it to me. I took it and read it over the next couple days. I’ll see if I can’t write up a full review but I’m still processing it.

Suzy was a contemporary of mine. We’re about the same age. I remember her on the cover of that running magazine back in the 1990’s. She was fast and pretty and the media loved her. She made 3 Olympic teams in the 1500 but mentally imploded in all of them.

It turns out she’s bipolar and has been struggling with mental illness her whole life. The final manifestation of that mental illness was her becoming a high-paid escort in Las Vegas. Apparently she brought the same enthusiasm to that as she brought to everything else – but that’s a symptom of being bipolar.

I follow Suzy on Facebook and she is a genuinely likable person. I’m still processing her story because there is so much intertwined here with the competition, the mental illness and yes, the sex. It’s a complicated mess for her and her family. I’m glad that these types of illnesses have less of a stigma now than they did, but it’s still a complicated mess.

It makes you wonder, when your mind is capable of such deception and complexity in the extreme, how much of what’s going on in your head is real and how much any of it actually matters?

The human mind is a complex and sometimes deceptive intelligence. We should all be careful to remember that.

I’ll leave you to think on that. As you ping pong around on the inside of your overly complicated homo sapiens skull bone – how much does any of that noise matter?

Everyone thinks they are the center of the universe. We worry about what other’s think. We worry about being good enough, rich enough, smart enough, strong enough – we create, or allow that complex human brain to create stories and chaos. You don’t have to create that chaos. All that noise is inside your own head and you and I, if we want to we can quiet it.

Maybe you think you’re alone in the world with your deamons. But you’re not. We’re in this together my friend.

Quiet your mind. Get some help if you need to. You’re not alone. You’ve got us.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-346 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Thank you for listening. Sometimes I don’t hear from you for a while and I get lonely. I wonder if anyone is listening. I thought it might due to a lack of positive feedback. I grew up in the 70’s and we were all about positive feedback. That’s why baby boomers are so needy.

The topic of today’s show is Spartan. I interview Joe De Sena the owner of Spartan Races. He’s a tightly wrapped dude with one of those clear, focused minds and the work ethic to support it.

In the first section I’m going to talk through my initial impressions of the Spartan race and its training. I have one coming up in September and I’m starting to worry about my fitness level. I expressed my concerns about things like not being able to do more than 2 pullups to coach. He says I’m taking it too seriously and, I quote, “A Kardashian could do that race.” Except he’s not the one running it!

In the second section I’ll think a bit on our fascination with Sparta and what it says about us.

My training is focused on strength and biking right now. I gave my Achilles a week off after the trail marathon but not really because I was down on the Cape over the next weekend walking the beach and riding for hours. It was great to spend some time with myself but I think I may have overdone it.

I tried to do a 1:30 run on the roads when I got back and I ended up walking back the last mile. It was the heat and my Achilles. Now I’m giving some more time to heal. I’m stretching and massaging and rehabbing. I’m spending time on the bike and working on my core.

It is a good time of year to be taking a break from running. It’s still super hot and humid.

Speaking of hot and humid I watched the Women’s Olympic Marathon and I though Amy, Shalane and Desi did a really good job of running their plans. They hung with the best runners in the world and all finished in the top 10. They inspired me and I’m sure they’ll inspire the next generation of American women.

Buddy the old wonder dog is doing well. He’s almost all recovered from his lump surgery. That should make him more comfortable in the short run. It’s too hot for him. He hasn’t been running except for what he normally does when we go for walks off-leash in the woods. This time of year we get a lot of thunderstorms rolling through at nighttime with all the energy in the atmosphere.

Katie brought his crate up to the living room and when it gets really bad we can put him in there so he doesn’t hurt himself. Thunderstorms make him mental. He’ll go into the tub in the girl’s bathroom or into one of the closets and start digging. We cage him up for his own protection.

By the way, I went for the follow up visit with my heart doctor and there’s nothing wrong with me that they can see. Which is good. That leads me to conclude that my issues earlier in the summer were due to the heat, jet lag and the case of pneumonia with the course of antibiotics. Basically my body, mind and soul were out of synch!

Which is why I’m focusing on doing a bit of foundational bio-reengineering this month.

…

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My reengineering project is a 30 day 5AM project. The anchor of this project is that I’m getting up early every day, as close to 5 AM as I can manage. The other attributes of it are:

No alcohol

Work on my nutrition plan to get stronger, rebuild my healthy biome and get leaner.

Work on my next book

Post a daily accountability video to YouTube to keep the project going.

It’s been going well. I haven’t hit the 5 AM every day but I’ve been close enough to be within the spirit of the exercise. I have eliminated alcohol and have been eating clean and focusing on foods that will have a positive impact on my insides. This weekend I made Kvass, which is a fermented beet juice and pickles using the cucumbers from my garden. I’m such a home body.

The work on the book has been doing a lot of circling the work and not actually doing the work, but I’m positive. My creativity tends to come in bursts. I’ve gotten the videos up each day consistently and you can see them if you’re interested in that sort of thing at my YouTube channel which is Cyktrussell. (Chris yellow king tom – Russell with two esses and two ells…)

I’ve really learned or relearned some valuable lessons from this project. First thing is that when you’re dealing with a stable system, like your body, even if it is stable in a place you don’t like, you have to be careful with the quantity and magnitude of changes. Any change you make is going to cause the system to oscillate.

A stable system is stable because it has inertia. It doesn’t want to change. A stable system resists change and it has memory. It’s like a rubber band. The more you pull the more it resists and it always pulls in an effort to return to the stable state.

Biological/mental systems are not digital. You can’t just expect to insert a stimulus and to leap to a different state. When you insert a stimuli the system won’t change digitally or even linearly. It will wobble as the opposing forces push and pull. The more things you try to change the more random the wobbling feels.

In my project I was trying to change sleep patterns and nutrition and my coffee intake and my alcohol consumption all at the same time. In the first 10 days my system wobbled. There were days that I was starving. There were days where I was so tired I couldn’t think or function. There were days when I felt depressed and defeated.

When you want to make changes in anything. When you want to innovate in your life. You have to be prepared to suffer through an adjustment period.

I have shared with you before the metaphor that says all projects follow a U-shaped curve. When you first start the project it’s all unicorns and rainbows and enthusiasm. When you get to the middle of the project it turns into an endless-seeming, hopeless, slog of work. As you get closer to the finish it becomes hopeful again.

Another useful metaphor I heard recently is to picture yourself standing on a mountain top. You have climbed successfully to the top of this mountain but now you want to innovate or improve to a new state. Picture that new state as another, higher mountain top that you can see across the valley. You know how to get there.

You have to go down into the valley and work your way to climb up the other side to get to this new peak. That’s what innovation is like.

Identify that next peak. Keep the vision of that new and next peak in your mind’s eye, even as, especially when, you lose sight of it in the tangled underbrush of the valley.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Joe De Sena, founder and CEO of Spartan Race, is also a living legend in endurance and adventure racing circles — he completed the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon, raced the 140.6 miles of Lake Placid Ironman, and finished a 100-mile trail run in Vermont, all within one week.

In 2014, De Sena authored Spartan Up!, A New York Times Bestseller, that changed countless lives and revealed the secrets to developing the resourcefulness and mental determination needed to become a true Spartan.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends you have carried, climbed and crawled through a mud pit to the end of Episode 4-346 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

I have a knock knock joke you can tell your kids. Ready?

Knock knock…

Who’d there?

Old Lady

Old Lady who?

Hey, I didn’t know you could yodel!

One of the great cultural advantages to being at my stage of life is that I can tell Dad jokes.

Next up for me is the Wapack trail race. Have you signed up yet? Even though I’m rehabbing my Achilles right now I am looking forward to Wapack. It’s my favorite kind of trail race. It’s long enough to be interesting at 18 miles but not long enough to worry about. It’s technical enough to be interesting with lots of single path and roots and rocks and mountains but that same technical nature keeps you from getting too serious. And, it’s nice and small with good people.

I’ll just try to get in under 4 hours and use the Spartan core strength I’m developing to manage it.

The weekend after is the Spartan race. I haven’t figured out the logistics for that yet. Then in October I signed up for the Portland Marathon. And in December the 4th Annual Groton Marathon if we can pull it off.

I’m staying busy. Life has its seasons.

One thing I’m wondering about is the Boston Marathon. After training well and not getting my time last year I honestly don’t know if I want to or deserve to run it in 2017. I do still believe I can run a qualifying time. It’s a question of when to fit that into my life. I’m certainly not going to run a qualifying time before September when the times are due.

I jump an age group in 2018. I’d like to have at least 20 Bostons but I’d like to earn them. I don’t know. I truly do not know. It’s probably time for a change.

A bit of learning I can give you kids, and I’ll write more on this at some point is about how you age athletically. When you look at the literature you see the ability of an athlete tailing off in a nice shallow straight curve. It shows athletes slowly losing their abilities, measured in finishing times, as they age. The curve drops a couple percentage points at a time.

In my experience that is not how it works. Like everything else in the human experience this process is non-linear, it is unpredictable and it is specific to the individual. What I’ve found is that I have lost my speed in chunks, mostly as the result of injuries. The line is more like a series of waves. Where after 50 or so each subsequent wave crests a bit lower than the last one.

The real question is not the performance line. The real question is the fulfillment line, the challenge line and the happiness line. The tricky task at hand is how to continue to, as our friend Peter says, “Run with joy” as the performance line trends down and the waves of aging break relentlessly against the breakwaters of youth.

The answer I think is to remember to be grateful. Grateful for the victories, grateful for challenges and grateful for the chance to get up today and breathe the deep humid air of this good earth.

(Audio: link)

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-345 of the RunRunLive Podcast. We’ve got a full agenda for today – so I won’t babble on too much. I’ve got an interview for you with Wilson Horrell from lift heavy-run-long who has a fascinating and educational back story.

I had done an interview with Josh LaJunie who is an ultra running vegan from New Orleans – but I messed up the recording and I figured we just had a vegan last episode. The eat vegan on $4 a day got a lot of feedback. Some folks were very enthusiastic about Ellen’s message, some were less enthusiastic and wanted me to balance that out with some fat-adaptive athletes. Which I will at some point.

My personal opinion is that nutrition is quite specific to the individual and you need to find what works for you. That process may involve some coaching but keep an open mind. As athletes we have the added wrinkle of our performance to think about.

I’m also going to treat you to my Eagle Creek Marathon race report, but true to form it came out so long that’s all I’m going to be able to fit into this episode. So I’ll put the interview up front and the race report on the back and we’ll call it a day!

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One of the interesting asides in the book I read last week about memory was a short bit on what to do when you practice something but hit a plateau. I think we all know this works. Initially when you learn a new discipline, whether an exercise routine or really, anything new it your learning follows the same basic arc.

Initially it’s hard and you learn slowly. Then you hit a stretch of rapid improvement. Eventually you plateau. And then you’re stuck. You push harder, you practice more hours, but you’re stuck.

The example they use is typing. Most typists get to a certain point and don’t get any faster. They get to the ‘good enough’ plateau.

How do you get unstuck? How do you get through the plateau?

Science shows 3 things that you can do, or at least try. Mindset, discomfort and approach. .”

The first one is mindset. When you reach that ‘good-enough’ plateau you self-talk yourself into being as good as you’re going to get. Your mind says, “Well, since I’m not getting better anymore I must be at the top end of my ability.” Like everything else once we let our minds tell that story, we internalize it and it manifests.

Like your parents and coaches always told you “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, either way you’re right!” You have to fix your mindset. The people who break through performance plateaus essentially don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

I’ll give you an example from my book on how to qualify for the Boston marathon. When I talk to runners about running a qualifying time they will invariably say “I could never do that!” I always ask a dumb question – “Why not?” If you reframe your mindset then the question becomes “How do I?” instead of “I can’t” – sometimes it’s as simple as making that mental switch.

The next that has proved to be effective in breaking through plateaus is to force yourself you’re your discomfort zone. In the typing example this would mean forcing yourself to type at a faster rate even though you are making more mistakes. Even if you fail a lot – you assume the higher level of performance and hang in there until the plateau is broken.

The key here is you have to really push to spend time in a place where you will most certainly fail consistently at first. Embracing the failure is part of the key to breaking the plateau. Starting at a higher level of performance and sticking with it until you catch up is the other part. Both are very uncomfortable.

The marathon qualification example is to start with the training paces you need to run to qualify. Even though at first you won’t be able to maintain them. It will hurt and you will fail. If you stick with it you can find a new level of performance.

Getting yourself to perform above the comfort zone (plateau) works hand in hand with the mindset of believing you can do it.

Lastly, when you think you can do it, and you force yourself out of your comfort zone into the failure zone you will be forced to find new approaches. In a sense you can’t operate at that level and it forces you to abandon your existing approach and try approaches that support that higher level of performance.

You will find the consistent areas where you are making mistakes – the failure points. Just like lowering the water level reveals the rocks, upping your forced performance reveals your weaknesses. Then you can devise focused practice to fix these failure points and enable the new level. It’s a virtuous cycle.

When you get to the point of re-evaluating your approach a coach or an expert can be a big plus. They have seen those mistake patterns before and can help you fix them faster.

In the typing example, maybe you find that when you speed up you consistently miss the ‘b’ key or the semi-colon. You can devise exercises that focus on those. Or maybe switch to a Dvorak keyboard layout to totally change the approach.

In the qualification example forcing yourself to run those faster-than-comfortable 1600 repeats will reveal flaws in your form and mechanics. A coach might quickly help you fix it. Either way you’ll quickly realize you can’t run on your heels and hold those paces.

There you go – simple way to break through a plateau. Give it a try.

On with the show.

Section one –

Voices of reason – the conversation

My name is Wilson Horrell, sometimes referred to as “Beefcake”, and I am a 39 year old, married, father of 2 children (ages 10 & 7). I am a raging drug addict and alcoholic, who after years of living and unhealthy life and blowing through a $2 million dollar windfall, found running, CrossFit, and people to be my new addiction, as I sobered up and began the process of picking up the pieces.

I started running 5k’s as an effort to stop smoking and lose some weight. I found a community of trail runners who welcomed, not only me as a person, but were also open to my slow pace. My love of the trail came about immediately, as I enjoyed the lack of pounding that the soft dirt placed on my over-sized body. I heard about Lift Heavy Run Long’s 50mile &400 Deadlift club. I set my sights on this, and ran various distances until this goal was achieved. Since I started on my fitness journey in 2013, I have participated in numerous CrossFit events, some obstacle races, a couple of marathons, a handful of 50k’s, and a 50-miler last November. I am registered for the Tour D’ Spirit 24-Hour Race in Memphis, TN on Sept 30-Oct. 1 I am an incredibly average runner, as well as average athlete. I enjoy the endurance sports, as I like spending long periods of time in introspection. I like the slower paced events, and enjoy listening to the internal struggle that exists between the body and the brain.

I do not take for granted the role that people in the running community, combined with the CrossFit community, played in saving my life, and providing me with happiness. I became a partner in Lift Heavy Run Long, LLC last December because I wanted a challenge and purpose. Our goal is to build as large and strong of a community as possible for those who enjoy an active lifestyle. We want to encourage the people in the fitness community, but also welcome the people who are struggling to make the decision to change their life through fitness. I know first-hand, how scary and intimidating it can be to sign up for that first race, or first fitness class. We want to help people who are struggling to take that first step.

I love positivity, and I love being inspired. I have found that running and lifting provides a multitude of opportunities to connect with other people and be of service.

I have a blog, which started as fitness journal, but has since turned into an almost daily rambling of all of the craziness that goes through my oddly designed brain. Von and I also started a podcast, where we are trying to find some of the world’s most inspirational people, who are leading lives of fulfillment through following their bliss.

Back Squat 325lbs

Push Press 250lbs

Front Squat 240lbs

Deadlift 415lbs

Fastest 5k 26:20

Fastest 10k 54:36

Sylamore 50K 2015. Finished Dead Last, but was robbed of this title because they grouped the final three of us in alphabetical order 10:22

Stanky Creek 50K 2015 7:30

Tunnel Hill 50miler 14:52 Didn’t finish dead last, but with enough perseverance, I can get there.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends you pulled the one arm bandit’s handle, hit the progressive jackpot, won the car and wheelbarrows full of shiny golden coins that are at the end of Episode 4-345 of the RunRunLive Podcast. (Really had to work that one didn’t I?)

I’ll keep this quick. I’ve got a lot of projects going on in parallel this month.

Next up is the Wapack Trail race on September 4th. I expect some of you to come up and run this with me. Or just come up and volunteer. It’s an out-and-back course so you can do as much or as little as you like.

Then in September I’ll be doing that Spartan race and if all goes well I’ll be interviewing Joe the owner for the next episode.

Then I’ll be gunning for the Portland Marathon in October with coach – which actually has some significance because I am aging up another 10 minutes for my Boston Qualification time for 2018.

Then of course we have to decide if we’re going to do the Groton Marathon at Christmas again. This would be our fourth outing and I was thinking about opening it up to the 50-staters and the Marathon Maniacs.

In the meantime I’m working on my next book and speaking project. And, oh yeah, working full time, traveling and now that my kids are out of college, seeing if we can fix up the house, consolidate our finances and, what the heck, work on my marriage.

In order to support this swarm of ill-conceived projects I’m going to have to get healthy and find some creative time. So I’ve kicked off a project in August to get healthy. This includes cleaning up my nutrition, no more alcohol and getting up a 5:00AM every day. I’m two days into it.

I’m going to make a short video every day when I get up to document it and I’ll see if I can get those up on my YouTube Channel ‘cyktrussell’and on the RunRunLive website. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to see my burry-eyed, discombobulated 5AM apparition, but I’m doing it for accountability.

…

When I was hanging out with my sister Lou this weekend she was telling me about a crime data study she had seen. Basically all the crime data for cities is publically available so institutions have taken to turning the methods of big data loose on it to see if they can learn anything.

It seems one of the things they found, not unexpectedly, was that certain areas of the cities were hot zones for crime. But they also saw something that they couldn’t explain. Within these hot spots were small bubbles that were crime free. There were oases of peace in the worst parts of the city.

When they looked to see why and what caused these bubbles they consistently found that it was due to one person in that neighborhood. That person ran a gym or a business and kept the kids off the street. That single person created a clearing for peace to manifest.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-344 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Today we talk with a fascinating and successful woman – Ellen Jaffe Jones – about how to eat healthy on the cheap! .

I connected to Ellen because my daughter brought home Ellen’s book How to Eat Vegan on $4 a Day. I started looking at it and saw that Ellen had a cool back story and was now a practicing endurance sports addict as well as a vegan and an author.

She has escaped from being a broadcast news personality on a fast track to an unhealthy and early demise by eating better and living a healthier life. Whether you are vegan or not you can pick up some tips on how to shoehorn some healthier food into your busy life.

She’s also one of those people that we talk to a lot who take control of their story and change directions mid-life. That should give all of us hope that the only thing stopping any of us is the decision and action to make the change we want and start telling a different narrative about our lives.

I am not vegan but I do like to eat clean-ish. I get a lot of fruits and vegetables and nuts in my diet. The thing is, I like fruits and vegetables and nuts. You have to make these decisions for yourself but there are simple ways to eat a bit healthier. One is to get your fruit and veg and nuts. Another is to ease into eating less of the bad stuff.

It has been consistently shown that there are a small set of lifestyle inputs that have an outsized impact on your health, quality of life and longevity. Going all the way back to episode 97 in 2010 with Dr. Monte we talked about this:

In no particular order:

Number one: Eat a healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables nuts (fiber).

Number two: Don’t smoke.

Number three: Exercise consistently.

If you’re listening to my voice here on the RunRunLive Podcast you probably have most of these covered. All three is great. If you can’t do all three, two is good and even just one of these is better than nothing. It’s not black and white. We’d all like to be perfect but just remember your goal is progress not perfection.

This is just for your physical health. There’s probably a similar list that includes cultivating a positive attitude, working on your self-awareness and having an attitude of abundance.

There’s no winning the game. We all end up in the same place. What you get is a few more good years. A better life and a better legacy, maybe.

Anyhow – in summary – Eat Kale! Heh…I actually see that bumper sticker when I’m commuting. “Eat more Kale!” like it’s some sort of political protest.

I do have some Kale in my garden. And some chard. My squash were making a wonderful display of prolificness this week but, much to my ire, Mr. Woodchuck has dug a burrow directly under my squash bed and is browsing his way through the plants.

And so another battle is pitched. Man vs nature in a dance played out each summer season for the last 8,000 years. Chaos want to have its way with our taming of the world.

And this is 100 feet from where Buddy hangs out in the front yard! Brazen woodchucks and bunnies and squirrels!

I guess Buddy is more of an observer than an interventionist. A Laissez-faire border collie.

He had a big week this week. He had surgery to remove a couple of the large lumps that were accumulating. He’s an old dog, but there was one under his back leg that seemed to be restricting his range of motion. He made it through the surgery fine and is now recovering. He went out for a quick run in the woods with me yesterday and seems no worse for wear.

I’ve been trail running like a maniac. I signed up for a trail marathon in Indianapolis July 30th – yes next Saturday. This past Sunday I did a 20 mile trail tempo run that I was pretty proud of. My runs have been crappy in the heat and humidity so far this summer. So that one was a confidence builder. Come up and join me next weekend! It’s called the Eagle Creek Trail Marathon. There’s a half and a 10k too I think.

One Interesting thing that is bugging me is that my pace has slowed to the point where the deer flies can catch me now. I never had a problem with the bugs because I could stay in front of them. But now I’ve reached an inflection point where they can catch me and it’s quite bothersome. On a couple of these trail runs in the heat I’d have what felt like hundreds of deer flies swarming me in the woods. 50 would hold me down while the other 50 bit me. I feel so violated.

In section one today I’m going to talk about beginner trail running – now that I’ve made it sound so sexy. In section two we’re going to talk about understand the narratives that other people are listening to.

…

Have you watched the new Tony Robbins documentary on Netflix? It’s fascinating. He does these live intervention things with people where you can see him reading the people. He watches their physical cues and asks them questions, almost like a psychic would. It’s an amazing example of how good or at least practiced he is at reading people. It’s fascinating.

I guess we’re lucky he’s not using those skills for anything overtly evil. He could make these people do anything in these seminars. It’s like the old religious camp meetings.

There are a lot of the things we recognize as familiar behavioral tricks. Like getting people to change their state – i.e. breaking their frame. Getting people to lean in – to buy in – a little bit at a time until they are totally susceptible to suggestions and instructions. Asking good questions that get around the façade. Getting past the perceived problem to the deeper self-awareness. And then, using the power of a shared experience to reinforce behavior.

So really it’s just another version of the group run!

On with the show!

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access To Exclusive Members Only audio

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

I am currently working on an additional podcast feed so you can subscribe and the members audio will be downloaded to your listening device with no extra effort. Like Magic! Because my existing members asked me to do that.

I’m also going to go back through time and re-curate some of the 300+ interviews I’ve done that I particularly liked for members.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends time to put down that fist full of raw kale and get on with your lives. You have grazed your way through to the end of Episode 4-344 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Next week I have a cool interview with a guy who hit the slot machines for a couple million bucks, it ruined his life then he became an ultra-runner…of course.

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access To Exclusive Members Only audio

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

I am currently working on an additional podcast feed so you can subscribe and the members audio will be downloaded to your listening device with no extra effort. Like Magic! Because my existing members asked me to do that.

I’m also going to go back through time and re-curate some of the 300+ interviews I’ve done that I particularly liked for members.

I finished my stint wearing the heart monitor for my doctor. I ended up running out of electrodes. If you’re working out every day and it’s summer time you take a lot of showers – and that chews up a lot of electrodes if you replace them every time. Going in to see them in August but I don’t think they saw anything.

I think it was the heat and jet leg and just getting old! I also think the few rounds I went with pneumonia in May and then the antibiotics that nuked my biome knocked me down a couple pegs. Not much I can do about that. Just put the head down and muddle through. One of my mantras is to wake up every day and do the best I can with what I have – or as Schwarzkopf said – “You fight with the army you have.”

…

I do have a new project that I’m working on. And part of this project is to put it out there, share it broadly and ask for feedback.

I’m writing a new book. Specifically I think I will write about how to create a powerful personal narrative to drive your life. I believe this ability to create a powerful narrative has enabled me to be successful, but more importantly to be at peace with myself and my choices.

I would like to share this keystone ability with the world. I know there are millions of people like me who are in a place where they don’t know what to do next or don’t have a purpose or reason in life and are struggling. By walking them through the process of documenting their past narrative, identifying the negative narratives in their life, re-writing and internalizing a powerful, positive self-narrative I can change their lives.

The difference this time, or differences are:

It will be a self-help styled book with simple exercises and such to specifically walk you through the process.

It will be designed to be saleable.

It will be designed to support speaking engagements around those themes.

It will be designed with publishers, publicists and media as the target audience.

There you go. It’s out there. No turning back!

If you want to help. I’d love to get feedback as I create this project and its content. If any of you have ideas or people I should talk to feel free.

I’ve always been a go-it-alone, do-it-myself guy but this time I’m aiming to break that bad habit and learn something new.

Because at the end of the day if you’re not scaring yourself you’re not growing.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-343 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Today we talk with author UK Ultra-runner Susie Chan, and by ‘we’ I mean Alex. Alex caught up with her and I did the editing.

Susie’s story has all the elements that we see when we talk about the transformational power of endurance sports. She was living her life,not in a good place physically or mentally. She ran a race, caught the bug and then dove quickly into the deep end with ultras and stage races – reporting it all on social media (as is often the case these days).

I love the story she tells about not having even run a marathon yet and signing up for the Marathon de Sables – Which is a 7-day ultra stage race across the Sahara. We’ve talked to people who have run this on the show – like Ray Zahab – it’s definitely not for an amateur. They lost two guys there one year in a sand storm.

There you go! If you take Susie as your data point then all you have to do is wake up one morning and start running ultras. Easy peasy.

In section one I’m going to talk about what to do when you are struggling in a run. Because I’ve been struggling recently. In section two we’ll chat a bit about telling a story into the future and using that to create a different outcome.

…

Happy 4th of July! I stayed home over the long weekend here in the states. Didn’t do much. Got a couple runs in and a long bike ride. Hung out with my family. Unclogged a couple drains in the house. Yes, I have basic plumbing skills. I might be the last generation of men who can do a little plumbing, a little carpentry, a little forestry and whatever else needs to be done. That being said, the stuff we used to learn from our fathers’ you can now get from YouTube.

Monday, on the fourth of July itself Teresa and I dug out my old canoe (see what I did there?) and took it out onto the Concord River. We put in in Bedford and paddled up to the Old North Bridge in Concord. That’s where Minuteman National Park is. That whole section of the river is park so it’s quite arboreal.

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Why don’t I take the cheaters way out and instead of thinking up my own salient content to ease you into the episode proper I’ll quote that crazy old philosophe Thoreau hisself…

“It is worth the while to make a voyage up this stream, if you go no farther than Sudbury, only to see how much country there is in the rear of us : great hills, and a hundred brooks, and farmhouses, and barns, and haystacks, you never saw before, and men everywhere ; Sudbury, that is Southborough men, and Wayland, and Nine-Acre-Corner men, and Bound Rock, where four towns bound on a rock in the river, Lincoln, Wayland, Sudbury, Concord . Many waves are there agitated by the wind, keeping nature fresh, the spray blowing in your face, reeds and rushes waving ; ducks by the hundred, all uneasy in the surf, in the raw wind, just ready to rise, and now going off with a clatter and a whistling like riggers straight for Labrador, flying against the stiff gale with reefed wings, or else circling round first, with all their paddles briskly moving, just over the surf, to reconnoitre you before they leave these parts ; gulls wheeling overhead, muskrats swimming for dear life, wet and cold, with no fire to warm them by that you know of, their labored homes rising here and there like haystacks ; and countless mice and moles and winged titmice along the sunny, windy shore; cranberries tossed on the waves and heaving up on the beach, their little red skiffs beating about among the alders ; - such healthy natural tumult as proves the last day is not yet at hand.” HDT

Voices of reason – the conversation

I began running quite late in life to get a bit healthier. Since stumbling over my first finish line in a race in 2010 I have gone on to run thousands of miles in training and in races. My favourite races are multistage ultras, these are races over multiple days and miles.

Highlights of my races have included two Marathon des Sables (setting off with the elites in 2015) Thames Path 100 and Boston Marathon.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends you decided to get up off the couch and run across the Sahara Desert to the end of Episode 4-343 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Hope you’re enjoying your summers. Or your winter if you’re in the other side of the planet. If you were on Jupiter where NASA just successfully dropped the Juno probe into orbit your summer would be 1083 days long. And the Europeans would still take most of it off.

I’m close to pulling the trigger on a trail marathon in Indianapolis for July 31st. Even though I’ve been feeling less-than-awesome in my running lately I figure I can just casually run it for fun. I don’t have an Indy Marathon yet and both my sisters live there. We have an office there too. I need to get out! Do something!

Then I’m going to do the Wapack Trail race. That’s Labor Day weekend. You should come up and do it. It’s 18 miles on technical mountain trails. A real hoot. I guarantee it’s different than anything else you’ve ever run!

Then I have the Spartan Beast. Which I’m not excited about but I’ll do it. And finally I told coach I’d run the Portland marathon with him in October. I did the Hood to Coast relay out there last year but I don’t think that counts as a state marathon?

…

So, like I said I’ve really felt like crap in my runs. Basically since I had pneumonia in May. I’m tired and my paces are off. I noticed my HR spiking a bit at the end of runs. I called my cardiologist and they asked me to wear a 24 hour monitor. I’ve been wearing it for a couple weeks now.

It’s a giant pain in the … It consists of three electrodes that you stick to your chest. One above your left breast and then another two, one under each breast. I’d post a picture but no one needs to see that. Oh, the horror.

Then the three wires run down to a small pendant that you keep in your pocket or clip to your belt. It’s like the size of a pager. (For you millennials, pagers were texting devices before we had cell phones. In old movies from the 80’s and 90’s you’ll see doctors wearing them.)

The companion piece is an android cell phone. The pendant track smy heart and sends any weirdness to the cell phone via Bluetooth. The cell phone then shoots that data off to the main office – where someone is watching.

This is all well and good but I don’t think the designers had me in mind when they designed the rig. When I’m trail running this time of year I sweat. A lot. I’ve managed to sweat off the electrodes in a few of my runs. Which is unfortunate because if there is anything nefarious going on with my heart it’s going to be at the end of a run.

I’m working with it. I found a way to run the wires up through the neck of my shirt and clip them to my camelback for yesterday’s 2-hour sweat fest and that kept the electrodes in place for the whole outing.

I don’t think they are seeing anything. Which is good news and bad news. Good news may be it’s not the heart. Bad news is now I have to figure out what it is!

…

I got a couple new pair of shoes too. I bought a new pair of trail Mizunos. I’ve never owned a pair of mizunos. They are basic neutral cushion shoes with an aggressive tread. The toebox was a little tight but my foot usually wins that battle.

I bought a pair of Hoka Challenger 2’s for the road. I was trying to break in a pair of New Balance that I had picked up dirt cheap at the outlet store but they just weren’t working. They were New Balances version of a Hoka-like shoe. Light and responsive but I couldn’t get used to the heel drop. I got the Hokas which are last year’s model for $84 and I know they work for me. Like running on clouds!

Because no matter how crappy your training is going, you can always use a new pair of shoes, right?

Susie is a great example of someone seizing control of her life. She became the captain of her ship. We all have that capability. No matter whether we are 20 or 60. Whether your boat is a cloth coracle or a party yacht. It’s all good. Thoreau in his canoe. You and I in our dinghies.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-342 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Today we talk with author Matt Fitzgerald, mostly about his new book “How bad do you want it?” You may know Matt’s name from Runner’s World, Competitor and Men’s Fitness among other publications. His 2014 book “80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster By Training Slower” made a big splash.

Matt and I geek out about the mental aspects of racing to your limits, both physical and psychological.

In section one I’m going to report on my lessons learned from the Boston marathon this year. (I must be a slow learner because I keep having to learn some lessons over and over!)

In Section two I’m going to give you my takeaways from a book I read on conversation tactics.

…

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Well my friends we’ve made it to the summer solstice. That time that is the official, astronomical beginning of summer. The longest day up here in the northern hemisphere where the earth wobbles precariously, catches itself and begins the long, drunken careen back to winter. If you’re in the southern hemisphere you can just switch all the words with their opposites.

For all the pagan sun worshippers out there you need to build some stone circles and do a little dance. Maybe sacrifice something – like a six pack of lager.

If you don’t believe the earth is round, well there’s no hope for you.

If you want to have some fun ask random people basic astronomy questions, like “Does the earth orbit the sun or does the sun orbit the earth?” Or “Name the planets?” Then sit back and be surprised with the answers.

It is getting warm up in my neck of the woods. The deer flies are out. I’m adjusting to it as always. For everything there is a season – Turn, Turn, Turn. Mostly I’m just trying to get all my runs in and trying to keep all the balls in the air.

I’m doing a lot of trail running and some mountain biking. It’s all good.

Friday I hit the ski area next to my house and did some reps on my bike up the tubing hill. It’s just about right for me to get to max effort at the top without blowing up or falling over.

Sunday I did 2 hours in the trails before going to have a father’s Day lunch with my Mom and brother.

I’m a bit tired today. We had one of those summer thunderstorm fronts role through at 3 in the morning. Thunder and lightning cause Buddy the old wonder dog a lot of personal stress and he needs to share his unhappiness with me.

Sometimes he goes and hides in the bath tub. Sometimes we’ll open the basement door and let him hide down there. But usually he just wanders the house being miserable like last night.

It’s summer. What are you going to do? I don’t mind running in the heat as long as I’m acclimated and kitted out for it. I love running in a warm summer rain.

…

I was down in Atlanta last week all week. It was a series of all-hands type meetings where the whole company comes in. I was on stage for some of it. It’s a tiring week. There’s the travel, the preparation, getting up to get my workouts in, being engaged all day and then socializing at night.

I did manage to get enough sleep to execute. I did manage to get some sort of workouts in in the morning. It was super-hot in Atlanta. High 90’s with humidity. Even in the morning I was soaked from running outside. I told them the only thing keeping me from bursting into flames was the humidity.

We were down near Georgia Tech this time so I got to explore the tech campus on one run – which was fun. I also got to go to a Braves game one night.

Matt and I are going to talk a lot about mental training today in the interview. Your mental engagement in the training and racing is as important as the physical engagement. You can’t be successful unless you have both.

It’s that perfect combination of mental engagement and physical capabilities that makes you successful. I think you can draw a parallel to your career. If you hate what you’re doing and are not mentally engaged it doesn’t matter how good you are at it, you will still struggle. The inverse is true as well. If you are mentally engaged but don’t know what you’re doing it won’t work either.

One of the telltale signs that you aren’t mentally engaged in what you’re doing is whether the doing of it saps your energy or energizes you. If you are fully, mentally bought in to a job you will have inexhaustible energy to pour into it. Doing the work will give you energy.

If you’re in a position where doing the work exhausts you while you are doing the work then either the work or the people you’re working with are not for you. There is a disconnect there. Pay attention and see which way your energy meter runs when you’re doing the work.

When I was jogging around the Tech campus I was listening to DirtDawg talk about the difference between a job, a career and a calling. One of those differences is in the way your energy flows.

On with the show.

Section one –

Voices of reason – the conversation

Matt Fitzgerald

“The mind is the athlete.”

—Bryce Courtenay

Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports writer and authority. His many previous books include the best-selling Racing Weight; RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel; Brain Training for Runners; and Diet Cults. His book Iron War was long-listed for the 2012 William Hill Sports Book of the Year. Matt is a regular contributor to Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, Outside, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Running Times, Women’s Running, and other sports and fitness publications. He lives and trains in California

Matt Fitzgerald is an award-winning endurance sports journalist and bestselling author of more than 20 books on running, triathlon, fitness, nutrition, and weight loss, including How Bad Do You Want It? and 80/20 Running. He contributes regularly to magazines and websites such as Women's Running and competitor.com. An experienced running and triathlon coach and certified sports nutritionist, Matt serves as a Training Intelligence Specialist for PEAR Sports and as a coach for Team Iron Cowboy.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends you were able to stay mentally strong, and I know it was hard, to the end of Episode 4-342 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Happy 9-year anniversary! Happy Father’s Day.

Does everyone have their summer plans? Are you ready? Have you filled your kiddie pool in the backyard up with ice?

4th of July in the States is on a Monday this year. I don’t have any plans. I guess I’ll have to venture down and see if my Cape house is still standing. Maybe I’ll recreate Thoreau’s walk up the outer Cape to Provincetown? That might be epic.

We’re coming into that time where the Europeans take the whole summer off. Work tends to slow down as people head out to vacation.

I’ll keep it short today because I don’t have a lot to say.

Please consider becoming a member – It’s how I justify the time and money it takes to pull off this podcast. Also if you are looking at a Fall race you might want to check out my book MarathonBQ. If you want to get faster, or want to try some speedwork, this is the book where I lay out my speedwork secrets that I used to take 40 minutes off my marathon time and qualify for Boston. It’s on Amazon Kindle and also in Audio on Audible. Links in the show notes and on my website.

…

Coming into last week’s trip to Atlanta I had a couple amusing challenges.

I was out trail running with Ryan, caught a toe and did the classic tuck and roll to keep from face planting. But when I stopped rolling I was right in the middle of a giant poison ivy patch. I’m super allergic to poison ivy. It was a hot day. We were miles from the trail head. I had to get on a plane later in the day.

When we were coming back we passed a garage where I guy was hosing out school buses with a high-pressure water hose. So, we went over and got him to hose me down. It was very refreshing! I scrubbed off as well as I could when I got home before heading for the airport.

Then I’m sitting in the airport and a crown comes loose on one of my molars.

So here I am, getting ready to go to Atlanta to be on stage and engaged. I’m losing a tooth and there’s a good chance I’m going to swell up into a giant, puss-y rash in front of the whole company!

Thankfully the bus wash and quick shower were able to mitigate an uncontrolled dermatological explosion. I got a couple itchy bits but nothing compared to what could have been. Dodged a bullet there. My tooth stayed put until Wednesday when I found it in a piece of pizza at lunch, but it didn’t hurt and I was able to get it patched up when I got back.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-341 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Today we have a great chat with John “The Hammer” Young. John is a proud father, husband, teacher triathlete and marathoner. I hunted John down to get an interview when I passed him in the Boston Marathon this year. It was one of those flashes in time during the marathon. One of those ‘moments’ in the disjointed flow of images as you fade in and out of race consciousness.

I remember looking at John, seeing his kit and thinking, “Jeez, that guy’s a stud. I bet he has a great story.” Then I saw him hamming for a picture with Bryan Lyons who pushes Rick Hoyt in the marathon now. I enquired. We connected and today you and I get to share the fruit of that conversation.

As you listen to our conversation you’ll hear me circling around the subject at hand because, frankly we’ve got ourselves a bit of a Catch 22 situation. The reason I wanted to pick John’s brain is that he competes, is an athlete, with Dwarfism. And I don’t say ‘suffers from’ or ‘is afflicted by’ on purpose because John is way more than you or I or anyone could pigeon hole as a ‘little person’.

In fact he’s just a great guy, a committed endurance athlete and we could all learn something from him. But, the fact that I wanted to talk to him about it is a bit at odds with John’s narrative of being an athlete. As with so many of us John doesn’t want to change the world or intrude a message into the conversation. Like all of us he just wants to pursue his sport; to swim bike and run. To test himself and set an example for his family and community.

In section one I’m going to talk you through a speed workout that coach has me given me a couple times. I’ll talk through the execution and the purpose and hopefully give you another tool for your box.

In section two I’ll give you a working example of some of the tricks and tools of writing a compelling speech or talk.

…

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I had a bit of a scare coming off that crazy May that I had with the travel and being under the weather. I had a couple easy long runs when I got back where my heart rate flipped on me in the 2nd half and I thought the AFIB might be back. But, everything seems to be cool now.

I did call my heart doctor and they freaked out a bit. I just casually mentioned that I had a follow up appointment coming and, oh, by the way, it’s probably nothing, but I got a couple anomalous heart rate readings… And they freaked out. They wanted me to wear one of those 24 hour a day heart rate monitors.

Luckily they seem to have lost their enthusiasm in their bureaucracy and I haven’t heard from them in a week. I’ll probably get a bill for the phone call. If you stop getting podcasts you may want to drive up to Massachusetts and start looking for me in the trails behind my house.

I’ve been doing a lot of long trail runs. I’ve related to you before how in a span of 2-3 weeks where I live the forest explodes into verdancy. My woods ae all fairly mature trees and when they leaf out there is a dense canopy over and around the trail. It’s like running through green, living, soft and womb-like tunnels – or ‘Green Mansions’ as William Henry Hudson put it. The forest becomes a living entity and a nurturing character in my life play.

I’ve got a new system where I take Buddy, the old Wonder Dog, out for the first 2 mile loop. Then I drop him at the house and head back out for the meat of my run. That’s enough for him to get a little freedom and pride of accomplishment without tweaking his hips.

I even got my first mountain bike ride of the season in. I forgot how much fun it is to hit the trails on my 29er, Mr. Moto. And when I say ‘hit the trails’ I do usually end up face down in the mud bleeding at some point. But, I’m always surprised by how quickly the technique comes back…it’s like…well…wait for it…riding a bike. Makes me wonder if I shouldn’t do another mountain bike ultra this fall.

I had a great run this past Sunday out in the trails. I did maybe 10 miles or so for a bit over 1:35 at a casual Z2 pace. It was overcast and sprinkling when I dropped Buddy and headed back out. It advanced to a steady rain and then to a downpour. But in the woods the rain is filtered through the canopy so it coagulates into these big, warm dollups of water that drain from the trees onto you. It’s glorious.

When I got back I was totally soaked. Like wet t-shirt contest, just went swimming, soaked. I went upstairs to the master bath to strip off my wet stuff. I noticed that the gutter outside the window over the hot tub was clogged and not draining at all. I opened the window to see if I could reach up and get the leaves out of it. It’s still pouring buckets of rain that is cascading out of the clogged gutter down me and the house.

I finally was able to tease it out with an appropriately MacGyver-ed coat hanger.

Here’s the picture you won’t be able to get out of your mind. Stark naked, soaking wet man, hanging out a second story window in a driving rain storm fiddling at the gutter with a bent coat hanger.

John Young Is Blazing A Trail For Triathletes With Dwarfism

Photo from start of marathon by WBUR and the other one is by Matthew Muise

"Triathlon has become life in microcosm, a metaphor that gives truth to the wisdom passed from each generation to the next: work hard and you will be rewarded, have faith in yourself and you will excel; do not falter when an ill wind blows your way." Ashley Halsey

Section two

Outro

Well my friends Your stride may be not be as long as mine and it may have taken you more steps but you have managed to make to the end of Episode 4-341 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Next episode will be our 9 year anniversary. Who would have imagined that?

That first piece, for the first episode I remember recording in my old truck after running the Mount Washington Road Race and then running back down, which ironically is the just about the same as the Grand Canyon, just in reverses. Quite a ride.

I signed up for a Spartan Beast in September. Hopefully we can get Joe on to talk about his new book at some point. The Beast is around a ½ marathon distance with 30+ obstacles in it. They have told me it takes people in decent shape 2 and a half hours. I can run 12 miles in an hour and a half so I don’t know what these Spartan people are doing with their extra hour J - must be a lot of standing around involved, right? Hey, I’ve been training hard and I can do almost 3 pullups now! They make you buy insurance when you sign up. This might not end well.

But, that’s not until September so I have to find something else to train for. I’m thinking a nice technical trail 50K. I’ve never run the 50K distance officially so it’s an automatic PR for me! And, it will be good base training if I want to try to race a marathon in the fall. Let me know if you have an interesting trail 50K I can run in late July or August.

I’m still trying to catch up from my May Madness. I feel good. I like the way the strength training makes you feel strong. I guess it’s probably a guy thing to like the feel of your new found muscles in your clothes as you walk around.

I have not traveled the last couple weeks which has allowed me to catch up on sleep and get my diet and biorhythms back to normal. Whatever normal is. Running in my trails. Working in my garden. Mowing the lawn.

The pollen has been really bad this year. When you come out in the morning the cars are covered in yellow dust. It’s given me a runny nose and headache but it’s ok.

…

We talked a bit about telling a good story today and being aware of your inner narrative. I had to learn this lesson again over the last couple weeks myself. I was in a situation where another person was asking me for details about some project I was working on.

My inner narrative went nuts and I got really defensive. Why are they questioning me? Why do they care about what I’m doing? This is my responsibility. I’ll handle it. Why question me? Do you think I can’t do my job? Are you trying to make me look bad?

I was really wrapped around the axle. I talked myself into being quite angry. I made up several scenarios in my head where I would wait for the next time this person asked for detail on something I was doing and I would call them out on it in front of our peers and put them in their place with a show of force.

Luckily for me I had a chance to bounce the issue off a friend and quickly realized that I was letting someone else influence my inner narrative. What I do or don’t do is under my control. What other people do or don’t do isn’t.

The solution is to keep doing what you think is right. Keep going on the path that is your path. At some point it might come to me saying something like ‘no, I’m not going to do that because it’s not a priority for me’ or ‘I’m doing this because I believe it’s the best path’ or whatever to keep someone from co-opting my agenda.

But I’m not going to let someone else’s narrative intrude on my own or cause me to go on the defensive or change my approach. If I’m doing what I believe is the right thing, then I’ve got nothing to worry about. I can sleep at night.

It’s your ship. You’re the captain. You can’t control the world. You can’t control other people. But you can control your own inner narrative and the way you react to the world and other people.

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-340 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

It’s Memorial Day Weekend this weekend in the States! It’s officially summer! Wow! I had a May to remember! I’m telling you, you will never hear me say “I’m overwhelmed” but these past weeks came close! I was back down in Atlanta this week and I caught some sort of stomach bug for a few days that sapped my energy – but this morning – Friday – I feel great!

Let me summarize my May adventures for you…

Came in Friday night from Atlanta. Was the second trip of the week having been in New Orleans earlier. Rented a car and drove up to Teresa’s graduation Saturday night for all day Sunday. Packed her up and drove back Sunday night. About 500 miles each way.

Repacked and headed out to Phoenix Monday, took Teresa with me. Had a conference at the JW Desert Inn Tuesday and Wednesday – Up at 7:00 AM east coast time, (4:00 AM local time) for calls, in the conference all day, getting my workouts in.

Meanwhile she slept late and floated around in the pool.

Grabbed a rental car Wednesday night and headed up to Flagstaff. Crashed out for the night, up early, drive up to the Canyon. Into the trail head at Bright Angel by 7:00 AM – Down to Phantom Ranch in about 3 ½ hours, turn around and push back up and out in around 8 ½ - 9 hours.

Jumped in the car and drove to Sedona for dinner and crashed. Up Friday morning for 7:00 AM east coast (4AM local time) for 3 hours of calls. Breakfast, short trail hike up Oak Creek, some yoga to loosen the creeky bodies up, shower and off again.

Sightseeing around Camp Verde and Montezuma’s Castle, an early barbeque dinner and off to the airport for a 10:30 redeye back to Boston Saturday morning.

Back on a plane Monday morning to Atlanta, suffered with a sore tummy and no energy all week.

And now it’s Memorial Day weekend! Made it! Didn’t drop too many things in the process except sleep, health most of my RunRunLive ToDo list. That’s why this show is all me! Didn’t have time to get any outside editing as I fell behind on my production schedule.

Did I mention you people are great? Did I mention I had a crazy spring?

But – as crazy as all that sounds, my life is nothing compared to what our guest today did. Becca Pizzi was the first American woman to do the 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days last year and we have a great conversation about it.

I’m going to give you the Becca interview right up front and then give you my overly-long Grand Canyon adventure summary. I’ll leave it at that because I don’t want to go over my time limit again!

Our Grand Canyon experience was pretty tough and totally cool. I’m so happy I was able to spend these days doing something interesting and worthy with my baby! We had a blast.

I’m fun to travel with because I’m a 30 year travel veteran. I have status and get treated really well. This gives me a certain chill fluidity in the chaos of the travel world. I just skate right through like a ghost, having a grand old time.

…

The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access To Exclusive Members Only audio

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

Currently on the members feed is my Eastern States 20 miler race report and the 3rd installment of a 3 part series on the podcasts that I listen to.

For the cost of a set of 10 ‘Legend of Zelda’ themed fake Million dollar bills (yeah – that’s and actual thing on Amazon) you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com

Sometimes the universe seems to be against you. In all religions there is a universal trickster that trie to unravel your well made plans – Coyote, Loki, Shiva.

There was a lot of counter pressure that was trying to keep me from running the canyon. I had to schedule the skeleton of the trip a couple months ahead of time. I don’t know about your life but mine doesn’t lend itself to planning 2+ months out.

As soon as you put something like this on the calendar the world begins conspiring to make you regret it by coming up with far more important things that you should be doing on exactly that day.

You have to just bite the bullet, commit to something and then hold fast to the buffeting winds of circumstance.

Teresa and I had a great Father-Daughter moment. Running the canyon was a hard thing to do and that gives us that shared legacy of conquering hard things that is one of the most important aspects of an endurance sports lifestyle.

Life isn’t easy all the time. You get tired and you get knocked around. You show up and do the best you can with what you have. You try to be grateful for what you can squeeze free of the vortex of time and hold those moments and shared, sacred things close as something timeless.

On with the show.

Section one -

Voices of reason – the conversation

Running is in my DNA. My Dad is a runner and inspired me to start running when I was a 6 years old. I ran my first race when I was 7 . I have never stopped, competing through college and running 44 marathons, including 15 Boston Marathons, qualifying for all of them and marathons in 24 USA states. I love running and share my passion with others, volunteering as a coach, coaching with Team In Training and Boston Fit, I'm a pace setter for Beast Pacing. I am an ambassador for Orange Mud trail running gear. Running permeates every aspect of my life - I’m a Mom… my daughter is seven and ran her first race in 2014. I’m a sister…my twin sisters are also accomplished runners. I’m a Bostonian…I have run 15 Boston marathons and wont ever stop. I’m a friend…I have built lifelong friendship over miles of training. I’m a business owner… I own a day care and manage an ice cream shop, both in my hometown Belmont MA!! I’m every runner…a real person that faces the challenges of everyday life, while making time for my the sport that I am so passionate about.

When I learned about the World Marathon Challenge, I immediately wanted to compete in this event in 2016. This event is 7 marathons, 7 days, 7 continents. The physical and mental demands of this race will be an awesome test of endurance. I will be the first American woman to complete the challenge and attempt to break women’s record time of 40:22:25. The race director, Richard Donovan accepted my application and saved me a spot while I get organized!

This race and representing USA as the first American female runner to run this, means everything to me. But above all, I am doing this to inspire people! I have the drive to complete this race, and I have the best resources in the world (cardiologist, nutritionist, coaches etc). It would be incredible to have you support me on this journey in which I have already been training for since January. I am committed to giving 200 percent. It would be my honor to represent the USA and become the first American female to run this race. Thank you to my friends who have heard me talk about this race for countless hours and to Joe and my family, this would not be possible without your support. Im truly very lucky to have so much love in my life. This is for my daughter Taylor told me I can so this, so it must be true.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends that’s it – you may have been listening to 7 podcasts in 7 days on 7 continents but you have finished episode 4-340 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

It’s getting hot up here in New England. Summer has arrived. Buddy the old wonder dog has a full thick coat of black fur and isn’t really designed for the heat. He’s not running much anymore. The girls take him for walks in the woods and I bring him for the first 20 minute loop if I’m doing a slow trail run in the woods.

He gets out on the weekends with me to run errands and visit. He gets a lot of cuddling with the girls at night when they force him to sit with them on the couch while they watch TV. But, his distance running career is pretty much over. His hips hurt him too much for the long stuff and he never liked to run in the heat.

I can still remember him running all those miles with me that summer I trained for the Vermont 50. Buddy has a big heart. He’s a good dog. I’ll have to work in some swimming trips down to the pond for him this summer.

I have to tell you that I’m pretty beat up this week. I flew down to Atlanta as scheduled on Monday but have felt awful all week. I’ve got a sore stomach for some reason and have been really low energy. Some sort of stomach bug taking advantage of my biome being weak from the antibiotics onslaught a couple weeks ago.

All of this travel and weirdness makes working out a challenge. I was in such good shape for Boston and I feel like I’ve lost a lot of that. I’m definitely not going to run the Vermont marathon on Memorial Day. I’m instead going shift my training to focus on the Spartan Race at the end of July.

I’ve been looking into it and I do believe I’m in for a ‘learning experience’. I was a wrestler in high school but it’s been a long time since I’ve been in that kind of ‘total body’ shape. The first couple workouts have been comically challenging for me as I try to do just one chin up. But, that’s why we do these things, to learn something new and to be challenged.

I’ve been doing some research on the obstacles in the race and I think I can simulate some of them. There’s a lot of climbing, carrying, crawling and even some throwing. And hundreds of burpees – which we used to call squat thrusts. It’s like boot camp. Should be fun.

…

I’m burnt out. With the travel, the pneumonia, the canyon and now some sort of stomach bug I’m feeling like I need to lay down for a couple days. But, I won’t. These kind of challenges are part of life. They are temporary setbacks. It’s important to position them in your plans as temporary setbacks.

There are small setbacks like these and big setbacks. You can’t use them as excuses to turn away from your course. The danger when you give in to setbacks is that it permanently changes your path. When you let those setbacks dictate to you what you can do it changes your velocity and your direction.

There are always going to be setbacks and challenges and they are always going to be poorly timed, inconvenient and unwanted. You have to accept that they are part of life. You keep moving and do what you can to recover and continue on your path. That’s grit, when you keep going even when it sucks.

If you keep moving, keep pushing, hold your course eventually the universe will bend back around to meet you in success.

It’s been an interesting week but we managed to rise above and pull off an interesting and compelling show for you. This week I’ve got an interview with Tony Mangan who, last time I checked facebook,.was in Russia some 2000 odd kilometers into his walk around the world.

Tony is/was an accomplished ultra runner and then decided to run around the world. He did. It took him 4 years. But when he got home he was still restless so he has set off again, this time at a slower pace and on an alternate route. This is basically his life now. Perambulation of the globe.

I was asked last week what I’d do if I didn’t have to work. My answer was probably just start running. Run across the US or something. There’s something about it that appeals to me. Not the effort or the accomplishment or the challenge. What appeals to me is the monastic clarity of it.

How’s my running going? Well I actually took 7 days off. What? Shocked? Yeah, I said it had been an interesting week.

It started 2 weeks ago. On that Thursday I got a cold sore and a slight fever. I thought ‘Ok, it’s some of those seasonal allergy symptoms’ and really didn’t think more about it because, as you know, I don’t get sick. Big waste of time getting sick. No reason for it.

It didn’t get any worse and Saturday I spent a fabulous long day working on my yard and got so much done. I was on a roll. Sunday I woke up to get my long run in and noticed that my heart rate was pretty high and I didn’t feel so hot. I went out and knocked out a couple low-energy hours anyhow but knew something was going on.

I felt progressively worse all day Sunday and when the early alarm went off to jump on a plane Monday morning I couldn’t do it. I was too sick. Which kills me. I usually go to work if I can still fog a mirror. I ended up sitting in on 3 days of 10 hour-long meetings by phone. It was the right decision.

Monday night I had the chills and fever sweats. I was awake coughing all night most nights. I slept on the couch all week sitting up to let the rest of my family get some sleep.

By the end of the week it had moved into my sinus and I was in some discomfort. My wife and daughter told me to go see the doctor. I hesitated because, hey it’s just a cold, all they’re going to do is tell me to go home, sleep and take fluids. Why waste my time and theirs?

I relented Saturday morning – more than a week into it by then. The nice nurse practitioner Duncan took my vitals and was giggly at how good shape I’m in for an old guy. But, he said, “Given your baseline this is totally out of whack. You either have acute sinusitis or pneumonia and we need to get you on antibiotics.”

Oh, ok…So I’m 4 days into the drugs and it’s clearing up.

Meanwhile I’m supposed to be speaking at a conference in New Orleans on Monday. I was speaking as a favor to an old friend of mine Dan who lives in Chicago. We chewed some dirt together back in the 90’s career-wise and always got along. I ghost wrote some of his first book. We were peers from the same cadre, he was about my age.

Last time I talked to Dan he was pretty sick. He had some problems with Diabetes and had to get a couple toes removed. I asked him, “Jeez Buddy, how does something like that happen?” and he joked back to me “Too much rich food. Bad lifestyle decisions.”

Much to my shock last week, I got a note from the conference Friday morning that Dan had passed away. This week, while I was speaking at his conference in New Orleans they were having services for him in Chicago.

So summary: Weird couple weeks.

I’m going to give you something a bit different today format-wise. We’ll drop right into the chat with Tony and then I’ll lay my Boston Marathon story on the backside of that. I’ll hit you with some closing comments on the back end. Fair warning, last time I checked my Boston story was over 5,000 words. I recorded a draft of it last week, but I’ll re-record because my voice was just painful to listen to.

Remember there is now a membership option for the RunRunLive podcast with special members only content. My goal is to get one piece of unique audio every week. This past week members were treated to my uncomfortably contorted sick voice rendition of the business podcasts that I listen to and why.

So, yes, for the price of one Czechoslovakian hockey puck you can sign up to be a member of the RunRunLive podcast and get further access to the audio bestiary.

…

When you have a weird week like the one I had it can cause you to take pause. If you’ve got unfinished business to attend to in your life, for heaven’s sake get to it. Don’t put it off. Don’t put off the things you need to do and the things you need to say.

The small decisions you make on your healthy lifestyle add up over time. Don’t put those off either.

I’ll share a less dramatic story from a couple weeks ago after Boston.

I’m in my office the week after the marathon. Coach has me not running much but has me doing yoga. I work out of a remote office and many times I’m the only one in there. I have a real, old style office with walls and a solid door that locks. I’m an executive!

I decided to do the yoga in my office. No one is there and it saves me from having to walk over to the gym and I can use the WiFi in the office to play Bonnie’s videos on my tablet. It’s all good. So I change into my workout stuff which just happens to be short shorts and a singlet.

I’m sitting on the floor in my approximation of the lotus position and there’s a knock on the door. It’s some unfortunate young guy who has come to service our water cooler. There I am like some strange half-naked yogi on the floor of my office. I explained to him what was going on and he got a kick out of it and was interested in all my hardware and running paraphernalia.

All in good fun.

Oh, yeah, I shaved my beard last week too.

On with the show.

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Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

(I’ve got episodes 4329 – 4335 up – in pieces - already)

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Starting from Run Logic's running store in Dublin’s Temple Bar, we will meet at two pm February 27th, 2016 and leave at three pm. Please follow my new blog for the walk ( Click Here ) or my Facebookpage!

After I first got the idea to run around the world I didn’t see how I could do it without a support vehicle. As running is more problematic than walking I decided instead of running the world that I would walk it! In 1998, I was living in Lake City, Colorado. I returned to Ireland I decided that one day I would find a way to live my ultimate dream, to run around the world ( As many of you know I achieved that in Oct 2014)

So, this world walk is my other long cherished dream :-)

Last Monday I was welcomed by The Lord Mayor of Dublin, this is becoming a habit! Thank you Lord Mayor Criona Ni Dhalaigh for my latest Magic Letter! I will be walking the world with a cancer awareness message; life is precious, early checking saves lives.

In 1977 I read Dervla Murphys book Full Tilt: Ireland to India on a bicycle. I put the book down and read it again immediately. I was gobsmacked. She cycled across Europe in winter continued across the Turkish mountains,across Afghanistan,Pakistan and into India on terrible roads and with a 3 speed bicycle. So I started planning my own trip to India. I bought a 5 speed Raleigh Corsa bicycle and told everyone in work what my plans were..I got in so deep there was no way out! Then someone asked me what I was going to do when I got to India! Cycle back Tony? It occured to me in a flash..No of course not...I'm going to just keep going.

In August '78 I set out to cycle around the world. I couldn't even fix a puncture. My heavily laden bicycle got about 8 in the 160km to Rosslare Harbor. I had to cycle late into the night to catch the ferry to France.I ditched some of my baggage and cycled myself fit. I returned 15 months later severely bitten by the travel bug. For the next 15 years I continued taking extended vacations often on my bicycle in (at that time) exotic locations such as Iceland, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Liechtenstein, Andorra and Egypt, as well as hitch-hiking around the middle-east and taking a year out in 1983 to cycle and hitch in South America.

Other than kicking a football around Dublin's streets I don't think I would consider myself from a sporting background. It just kinda grew on me.I used to run to football training and then run home later to improve my stamina.The penny dropped when I got a very bad ankle injury and missed running more than football.That was almost 25 years ago and I haven't kicked a competitive ball since.

I was going out with a girl whose boss was on my now running club's committee.She suggested I join MSB A.C. I ran the marathon within 5 weeks of first serious lacing of my running shoes.I I did my one and only long run of 35km just 7 days before. In the marathon I ran 3.09 and was hooked. Gradually I got my time down to 2.38.

In 1994 I obtained a green card and emigrated to Colorado,USA. There I discovered the wonders of mountain ultra running.I more or less drifted away from the cycling at this stage..Gradually I progressed to running 24 hour races...I was obsessed by 24's and in an attempt to try to make them 'shorter in my mind' I entered a few 48 hour races only to find I was more competitive with these! In 2002 I returned to Ireland after getting a bad foot injury. Around this time world record attempts were very popular on treadmills. I had a couple of shots and in 2003 managed to get both the 24 and 48 hour world records at the Dublin marathon expo.

I was working in construction as a snagger and used to run in and out of work.Everyone used to sneer and say I musn't be working hard if I still had the energy to run home after a long hard day on my feet. I used to say that it was my running training that made me fitter to work hard and when I stepped in the door I was well warmed up! I always found construction work to be an excellent way to maintain exceptional fitness,especially when I was injured and couldn't train,I rarely lost any. I don't think the dust helped me much though.

I used to run everywhere.I had a small blue satchel and if I needed a magazine in the city or needed to post a letter I usually just ran. I made a few appearances for Ireland for 100km and 24 hours and seemed to be able to run a very consistently reliable 24 hour distance.

In March 2007 I booked a Ryanair flight to Brno,Czech Rep. for a 48 hour indoor race.I really had no expectations as I was just going for the experience. I was wearing my race shoes on the plane and was traveling with just a small amount of carry on baggage.I didn't even bother bringing much race food..During that race I ate the candy I had bought for my niece and nephews..It seemed to hit the spot...I ran like a man possessed and often wonder if I received some form of divine intervention as I broke the world indoor 48 hour record with 426.178km running for 47 of the hours and walked just 750 meters.

This was also the first occasion that a runner ran 2 consecutive days of 200km plus.. Three years later a committee of ultra running researchers and ultra running historians awarded me with a world first for 48 hour running. My splits were 223 and 203km...I was staggered and shocked by this race of my life. Due to this performance I received an invitation to run the prestigious invite only Surgeres 48 hour race in France.

Before accepting I thought long and hard about competing as clearly 8 weeks would not be enough time to recover from a world record performance in Brno. I went against the advice I was given and in Surgeres I surprised myself again by running 401km to finish second. Those 8 weeks were the greatest weeks of my running life. I have never reached those lofty heights since,save for a 405km to regain my world 48 hour treadmill record in Longford Ireland. Getting that record back was so important to me..I was injured having not run much in the previous two months. it was pure determination running through the pain and fatigue barriers that won me that record back.You see the man who took it off me skirted the rules and was holding the treadmill bars as he was running...Yes amazingly its not against the rules to run on a treadmill while holding the bars! Just try it in your gym...If you hold hard enough you can even almost fly above the belt..is this running?? No athlete worth his salt would 'run' in this chicken fashion!He actually has records for coach surfing watching mind-boggling daytime tv watching Judge Judy and Seinfeld for weeks on end and thinks running on a treadmill should allow him to hang onto the rails like he was holding onto a zimmer frame for dear life!

So because of cock-ups I do not recognize the authority of a so called record compiler. I endeavor to put my efforts under the the even greater scrutiny of my fellow athletes and a newly formed committee made up of experienced athletes because they understand athletes and athletics. I ran a couple of 3 day races in Arizona,winning one and finishing second in the other. I am now officially retired from competitive athletics and will only compete for fun in the future..I have had a great time.Thanks for the memories,wonderful help and encouragement...

I now look forward to a new career as a journey runner.

Section two

Outro

Well my friends that’s it you have done the painful death shuffle to the end of Episode 4-339 of the RunRunLive podcast. Hope you enjoyed that. Feel free to send me feedback. All this stuff is posted on my website and you can leave comments. If you dig what we’re doing here, feel free to repost the show post or share with a friend.

Well. I’ve decided to pivot. I was going to go up and double down at the Vermont City race. I signed up for it. But, I think I’ve lost too much fitness. The sick kept me from training and it will probably take a couple weeks to totally get over it. I’m basically out of runway for a May 30 race. I’ll probably just skip it.

I got a new project though. (Like I don’t have a new project every week…) but seriously, the people from Spartan races contacted me. I’m angling to interview Joe the owner. I didn’t know they were based out of Boston, which is cool. In general I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to racing but these guys actually keep score unlike a lot of the other obstacle events.

If I do it I’m going to take it seriously and compete.

They gave me a freebie. I figure it will take some time to beat my skinny-ass runner upper body into something that can compete at flipping tires and climbing walls, but it will be good for me. It’s just what I need. There are two races at the end of July. One south of Montreal that is only a 3-4 hour drive for me and one in Edinburg which is an interesting thought.

Then maybe spin up a serious race in the fall.

I’m out to Phoenix next week and I’m dragging my newly minted college grad with me and we’re going to sneak off and do the canyon at the end of the week.

Closing comments

It’s strange my life. While I was writing that Boston report I looked back through the inventory of life events over the past 5 years and it’s really amazing. I always feel like I’m falling behind and not doing enough but when you lay it all end to end it’s something.

I’m happy I’ve been able to make choices and decisions that have brought me adventure and challenge and health. I think about the roads not taken and I wonder how much different my life, the quality of my life and the quality of life for those in my life might be on a different path.

I’m not one to preach, but like my coach says, “Die with great stories, not regrets.”

Don’t put off ‘til tomorrow. Don’t sacrifice your now for some unfortunate future and thanks to antibiotics and clean living I’ll see you out there.

Hello and welcome to episode 4-338 of the RunRunLive
Podcast. In today’s episode we are going to have a chat with
Sandra the Organic Runner Mom. I met her up at the ES20 and
decided to have her on the talk about some of the goings on in the
organic farming space she habituates. It’s a good
chat.

In section one talk about how to roll your fitness into a B race
when you’re a race goes sideways. In section two I have another
piece I wrote for one of my work related blogs when they asked me
what my advice to my 22 year old self would be.

Ironically I saw her at the Boston marathon. She tapped me
on the shoulder and said ‘hi’ as she was cruising past me late in
the race. That wasn’t hard to do at the pace I was going at
that point!

I’m tired. This time of year is super busy for me – as I’m
sure it is for you as well. I have just rolled out of a 7
–day stretch that include getting my ass kicked at the Boston
Marathon, a quick trip to Atlanta on business then pulling off the
25th annual Groton Road Race over the weekend.

I had to drop my little one off at the airport at the crack of
dawn Monday morning and get back to my home office for a 3 hours of
conference calls starting at 7:00 AM with Europe. My wife
pulled a bit of a fast one on me by announcing Sunday night, after
I was already well into my celebratory cups at the race wrap-up
cookout, that I’d be taking my daughter to the airport in the
morning.

I’ve got this week to catch up on some things and then I’m into
6 weeks of travel and it won’t let up until the middle of June, if
ever. It’s good to be needed.

Yes, as you have guessed, we had a tough day at Boston. It
was a little warm for me, there was a bit of a head wind, but I
went for it anyhow and ended up sprinting right into the wall with
a classic, textbook, Boston-bonk. I couldn’t recover and
ended up doing the death shuffle in for a 20 minute positive
split.

But, as painful as it was I was not terribly disappointed.
I trained very well. I respected the race. It just won this
time, as it has done many times before. It’s a tough,
unforgiving race. I’ll try to write up a full race report
this week.

We had awesome weather for Groton. We had a good year
which no major crises. Great for me to ‘go out on top’.
It really is something when you see how organized we are and how
well we pull off an event of that size with a dozen or so volunteer
directors.

We got some new members this week for our RunRunLive members
only feed where I produce some extra audio content.

Last week, based on member feedback I started working on a
series about the podcasts that I listen to. I don’t know why
anyone would want to listen to that, but since they are members
they get to tell me what to do!

I also worked with one of my virtual assistants to add an annual
membership option and that should be working now. You asked
for an annual option, so I got it added.

I’m doing this membership option so I don’t have to bug you with
commercials, sponsors and ads.

Access To Exclusive Members Only
audio

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just
for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all
Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two
life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone
MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

(I’ve got episodes 4329 – 4335 up – in pieces -
already)

We will consider other benefits as they are requested
by you, because when you’re a member it’s all about
you!

For the Groton Road Race we set up on Saturday. We have
the party rental stuff delivered and we set up the field with
fencing and such. We pick up the water and the ice. We
do a lot of miscellaneous running around.

We set up the gym and sort through the shirts for
registration.

Sunday morning is race day. I host a 6:00AM run of the
course. This I can keep my streak going. A trick I
learned from Dave McGillivray. I actual register and
pay. Sometimes I’ll wear my number. Usually it’s a half
dozen or so of the race directors who show up. We walk over
to the starting line say a few words and go run the
course.

This weekend it was beautiful. With the sun just coming up
over the hills and meadows of spring time Groton it was
stunning. My friend Brian and I led the pack and just had an
easy run of the course. It’s so peaceful and serene in the
crisp morning air.

Then we get changed up and go to work to pull of the race.
I keep my time so I can be entered into the official results.
I stopped my watch at 49:36 for the 10K run.

One of our RunRunLive members Duane came up from PA to run the
race and say ‘hi’. I was checking the results online this
morning and his time is posted as… you guessed it… 49:36! How
about that?

Voices of reason – the conversation

I found running back in high school when I used to run before
crew practice. It was common for us to have to run from boathouse
row in Philadelphia to “The Three Angels” and back as a warm-up
before getting into our shells for the real workout. Someone once
called me “gazelle” during one of these runs perhaps because of my
ridiculously awkward, skinny long legs but perhaps more so because
they could see how freeing running could be for me. I rowed all
through high school and college at Colby College in Maine and then
met my husband, a rower too at Bates College! I used to be a rower
but when my husband and I moved back to New Hampshire so he could
join the family business, Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs in 2000
running became my new passion!

Being a runner has taken me on a journey of self-discovery and
made me a stronger individual both inside and out. As a runner I am
inspired and motivated by all of the amazing endurance athletes
that I meet. Since I discovered my love for running I have met many
new friends and have continued to set new goals for myself. I
always have big dreams and love a new challenge. I am now a half
marathon runner, marathon runner (2 time Boston Marathon Finisher,
soon to be 3 time finisher!), trail runner, and mountain runner.
Several injuries (tendonitis and a back injury) have led me to
discover triathlons. Most recently I completed my first Half
Ironman and the Timberman Ironman 70.3.

I love sharing my athletic pursuits with you as well as training
tips, nutrition tips, recipes, and lots of motivation. I hope you
will join me often on my blog here and that you will share your
stories and inspirations too.

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of
strength that will endure as long as life lasts. –Rachel Carson

Section two

Outro

That’s it friends, members, we have made it to the end of yet
another fully certified organic RunRunLive Podcast. Thanks
for being along for the ride. Thanks for being a
friend.

Next week we’ll chat with John Mangan the Irish ultra runner who
ran around the world and he’s now walking around the world.
Interesting dude.

I had issued a public service announcement about the RunRunLive
podcast feed. I wasn’t getting updates on my podcruncher
app. I called Libsyn and they said everything was cool but
“did you know you have two instances of RunRunLive on iTunes?” Yes,
I know – the second one is an older feed that goes through
Feedburner that I’ve been telling people to switch off of for a
year now. I could tell you again, but if you’re hearing my
voice you figured it out. I went in and deleted that feed and
permanently redirected it – (That sounds painful). The Duh!
Moment for me was when I realized that I was pointing to the wrong
feed in iTunes with my PodCruncher app! Doh!

You can get the show from iTunes, from the Libsyn feed directly
or just download the files from my website. All roads lead to
RunRunLive. Except Feedburner. That turns in on itself like a snake
eating its tail.

With the marathon over and the road race done - what now?
What am I going to focus on? I’m thinking about running the
Vermont City Marathon on Memorial Day – May 30th. I hate to
let my fitness go to waste. I felt really strong going into
Boston and I think I have a decent performance in me, I just need
the right venue.

I’ve been at this for a long time. I think I’ve found some
balance but the tradeoff is that I’m not as manically focused on my
running goals anymore. I just want to feel that joy that we
get on those crisp mornings with the sun peaking over the hills and
birds chirping. You know, the peaceful epiphany stuff that I
love, out on the trails thinking about stuff and thangs.

Closing comments

That’s 10 years, or maybe 11 that I was the race director of the
Groton road races. That’s close to 20,000 runners of all ages
I helped give an opportunity to get over our courses and across our
finish line. To put that in perspective, that’s about how many men
Hannibal crossed the Alps with to conquer Rome. But he also
had 40 war elephants. We don’t have any elephants.

But, still, that’s a generation of runners I had some small
impact on. That’s pretty cool. I’m a grateful
guy.

We had all 25 T-shirts strung up across registration. That
is impressive. Now you’re talking 2-3 generations of local
runners we’ve touched. We are all very fortunate.

Many times we look at these things and we fret over what we
could have done. We wring our hands over the opportunities
lost. We beat ourselves up because we didn’t make some goal
or achieve some thing to make our mark higher. We are a
chronically unsatisfied bunch.

It’s really all in the value of the action taken, whatever that
action was, the movement that starts a person. Because each
movement has the opportunity to take hold and create compound
movement both physical and metaphysical. That snowball effect
is how our small actions can win the world in the
balance.

iTunes upload issues 4-15-2016

Apologies folks – I did manage to drop Episode 4-337 on Friday but for some reason it’s not making it to iTunes. We’ll keep working on it. Until then you can download the show mp3 or listen directly on my website www.runrunlive.com

Hello and welcome to episode 4-337 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we are going to continue our exploration of the relationship between addiction and endurance sports with longtime friend of the show Greg. I recorded this interview a few weeks ago the same week I spoke with Nate so I was using that discussion as a starting point with Greg to till new ground.

In section one I’ll give you my Boston Marathon 2016 walk through. In section two I’ll give you a post I wrote on innovation that has a business slant but you folks are smart enough to tease out how it all applies to your personal lives as well.

Remember no Harry’s razors ads here, because then my kids don’t get to go to school. That’s right. One of the companies I was on the leadership team of sold a good sized deal to Gillette who makes those expensive razor blades everyone is trying to disintermediate. If we hadn’t sold that deal, I wouldn’t get my bonus and my kids would be street urchins now.

I’d like to welcome new members Ken, Rebecca, Foti and Greg for helping keep the kids off the street over here at RunRunLive.

The Boston piece in this show is a bit long so I’ll keep my intro comments brief. I’m in my taper for Boston. I knocked out my last real workout on Sunday with a 9 mile pace run that was again right where I need to be. The weather looks decent. Now I just have to have a good day.

I’m trying to eat clean and relatively lightly this week. I’m locked down. I’ve got no travel until next week and I’ve got enough projects to keep me busy. It’s still very stressful to sit around and try to stay calm.

…

So, It’s time to line up for Boston again. When this episode drops it will be Friday before the Patriot’s Day. 20 years ago I started running again and ran my first Boston Marathon. It had its way with me that first year. It taught me a lesson about what the marathon distance expects from a runner. Boston expects even more.

When I first started running Boston it was still mostly a local affair. We had our fans and acolytes among the serious runners of the world but it was a still a local race and a local tradition. When the rest of the world didn’t really care much about city marathons we had a deeply embedded heroic culture and mythology that was already a century old.

We grew up with the marathon in our lives.

Boston shaped the long distance road running culture in Boston and New England. The spring and fall race calendar revolved around it. You were either training for Boston or training to qualify for Boston. Seasons of training and racing that had a nice and comfortable cadence.

Some things have changed, but things always change in this world. It’s still the greatest marathon in the world. And it’s still our marathon.

Over the last couple years Boston has become a bit of a white whale for me. But I’m working on that. I know I can’t keep doing it forever and the new standards and new qualification windows really force it uncomfortably into my life.

I’m completely grateful to have had the privilege of this old race in my life. I’m grateful to have been able to meet the great men and women who have written their stories there.

Time is a river and you can never step in the same water twice, but I’m happy to have gotten my feet wet when I had the chance.

On with the Show!

Section one - Running Tips

Voices of reason – the conversation

As a psychologist, a father, a husband, a runner, a former Army officer and a former country manager of an American business in Russia, I bring a varied and eclectic style to my work. Trained in marital, family and child therapy, I have worked with clients from childhood into retirement and enjoy the diversity of seeing people at all stages of their life and development.

My goal is to maximize happiness and reduce anxiety and the impediments to truly enjoying your life. To do so, I am happy to see individuals, couples or families, and look forward to seeing you!

Section two

Outro

That’s it my friends, let the credits roll as we gracefully taper our way out of Episode 4-337 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

With any luck this episode will drop on the Friday before Boston. Remember, Boston, being the special, on-of-a-kind unicorn that it is, is held on Monday. That’s Monday the 18th.

Then I have to turn my cranky old self around and pull off the Groton Road Race the following weekend.

I’m starting back into a fairly heavy travel schedule so that should keep me busy. After Boston I’ve got my Grand Canyon adventure planned for the middle of May. And I told Coach I’d run the Portland Marathon with him in the fall. But, I really don’t have any athletic goals for the summer.

I’d consider a trail 50K if I could find an interesting one. I want to get off the roads and I’ve never raced the 50K distance – so that would be something new for me. I think that’s what my future agenda is going to skew towards – new and interesting stuff.

You can still support my Team Hoyt campaign for Boston. The links are in the show notes.

April 24th is the Groton Road Race. You can runit virtually if you’re not in the area – or show up and say hi - just go to GrotonRoadRace.com. We took a crew out Saturday and cleaned all the trash up on one section of the 10k to make it pretty for you.

…

I’m a bit stressed out this week, because, you know, beyond all of this I still have a job and a family and a home and an old dog to take care of! I took Buddy to the vet and they thought he was fine. I have a regularly scheduled appointment in June and we’ll decide whether we want to remove the big fatty tumor in the ‘armpit’ of his back leg that seems to be impinging on his range of motion.

He’s happy. He still gets out. Ironically this week as I’m laying low into Boston he’ll get plenty of walks around the neighborhood. Hey, if all he can do is give hugs, that’s ok with us.

…

Closing comments

Who out there has seen the original Batman movie? I’m not talking about Michael Keaton. I’m talking about the campy one they made from the TV show in 1966.

In one of the scenes they have Batman (played by Adam West) trying to get rid of a bomb. The bomb is one of those ones like in the cartoons. A cannon ball shaped thing with a fuse burning. Batman has the bomb in his hands and is running around the piers on the waterfront trying to get rid of it.

The gag is that every time he goes to throw it in off the pier there is something in the way. Like a boat or a flock of ducks. So he’s running around with this smoking bomb that he can’t get rid of.

I had a workout like that last week.

Coach scheduled a little tune up workout of 3 sets of 3 X 200 meters all out with 20 second rest between reps and 3 minutes between sets. It’s basically a lactic acid buffering workout. Fine tuning for the race. Compared to what I have been doing it’s an easy workout, maybe 3-4 miles total even with the warm up and cool down.

I was working from home and of course the day got away from me and it was getting into the afternoon before I got ready to go. I was coming off a delayed flight from Chicago the night before and was a bit jet lagged.

I figured I’d head down to the track and knock it out. I drove down to the track and much to my surprise and frustration there was a track meet in progress! Who do these people think they are using my track!

I had to go to plan B. I figured I’d just knock them out in my neighborhood. But, of course, my neighborhood doesn’t have the 200’s marked off. I had to go back to my desk and program this workout into my Garmin. It took a few minutes to do this, because the workout is a bit detailed in structure. Then I synced it to my watch and headed out.

I ran about a 2K warm up and hit the button to start the first 200. I’m going all out on these, 99% effort, which for my neighbors I’m sure looked like I was having some sort of fit in the road.

Now, I’ve done enough track work to know how far approximately 200 meters is. I got to that point and the watch didn’t go off. Now I’m thinking, “Did I enter 200M into the watch or 300M?” Because there’s a big difference there for this workout.

I turn around and do another one back to where I started and now I’m pretty sure the distance is wrong. No problem I’ll check the watch and see what it says. The only problem is that in order to do that I have to stop the workout in process. Crap.

I stop the workout and start editing it on the watch and I still can’t tell what it says because the watch has converted everything to miles and even though I’m a smart guy I don’t know how to convert 200 or 300 meters to .19 blah blah miles. So, I have to change the watch default to metric and then see that I indeed programmed 300m instead of 200m.

That’s not going to work.

Back to the house. Log back into Garmin Connect. Fix the workout. Re-sync. Back out the door.

The actual workout really wasn’t that bad, but it fought me all day, it was a test of wills and I wasn’t going to let it win. In the end this easy 30 -40 minute workout probably chewed up 2 hours of my afternoon.

Hello and welcome to episode 4-336 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I’m squeezing this one in on an off week to help out my interviewee today, Anthony Solorzano, (sounds like a character from a Quintin Tarantino film), but he’s a lifelong runner, with a passion, who is making, or has actually made a movie called Varsity Punks. His Kickstarter campaign to put the finishing touches on this new cross country team themed movie ends on April 13th.

I figured with a little extra midnight oil I could get this episode up in time before that kickstarter closes.

If you want some good swag and want to help Anthony bring a running-themed feature length film to market go now and kick some cash his way.

I’m not getting any kickbacks, I just like the idea of bringing the discussion around running as a real sport out into the open! I try to help people when I can. It’s karma. So, yeah, we’re talking to Anthony today about his movie. Go watch the trailer – it’s cool – the links are in the notes.

If I can swing it you’ll get 3 podcasts in three weeks – plus all the good stuff I’m putting into the members section.

In the first section I’m going to talk about why sometimes your training is always hard and why it’s ok. In the second section I wax counter-culturally about passion.

What I’m not going to give you are any advertisements. No Harry’s razors, no Audible and no Stamps.com.

Actually, while we’re on the topic, I think you should go to the post office. The public post is one of the great enablers of civilized society. Yeah it’s slow and everyone is grumpy but that’s why you should go down there. Think of the great impact you and your positive attitude can have on those poor, lost souls standing in line! If you bought your stamps online you’d be denying them your bright light.

Those confused old people using pennies to buy stamps ae the greatest generation. They are the defenders of democracy and the western world. You should go get to know them.

Get thee to the post office! Go when it’s busy. Stop along the way and bring coffee and donuts. Strike up conversations, make friends and make someone’s day. Life’s not just about the miserly squeezing of pennies and minutes. Treat it like a safari, and adventure.

We are Ad free and listener supported. To keep it that way we have created members’ only content.

By signing up for a membership, you will get…

Access To Exclusive Members Only audio

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

(You have to check out the zombie story I put out last week... It’s awesome)

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

(I’ve got episodes 4329 – 4335 up – in pieces - already)

We will consider other benefits as they are requested by you, because when you’re a member it’s all about you!

I’d like to thank Eric and Keating and Cliff and Judith for paying the dealer this week. I asked for feedback and Eric said I’m not funny anymore. I used to be funny.

So I’ll tell you some jokes: Clean jokes for your kids. For all you teachers and coaches.

The first one is for trail runners. Q: How do crazy runners go through the forest? A: They take the psycho path.

No didn’t like that one? This next one I may converted from a blonde joke…Q: Why did the Labrador retriever jog backwards? A: She wanted to gain weight!

And here’s one the 3-5 year-olds will think is hilarious… Q: Did you hear about the race between the lettuce and the tomato? A: The lettuce was a "head" but the tomato was running to "ketchup"! …

I kicked ass in the Eastern States 20 miler a couple weeks ago as my last tune up for Boston. I came in at 5-10 seconds a mile faster than my goal pace even though it was my 2nd 20 miler inside of 7 days and I had to make a 2-minute potty stop at mile 7. My Heart rate was a bit high and I had a little power loss at mile 16-18 but my legs were strong and I finished strong.

All the lights are green for Boston. We just have to get decent weather and I have to figure out how to navigate around the 14-16,000 runners between where I’m starting and my pace group. My number is 28766 if you want to track me.

Now I’m in my taper. That doesn’t mean I’ll stop training it just means I’ll switch to race specific training like shorter speed work, strength and stretching. I also have to reign the diet in to see if I can cut 5-10 pounds for the race. I was a wrestler in high school – so I know how to drop weight.

I’ve been pretty hard on myself for not being able to make this qualification time. I could have knocked this time out without too much struggle in 2011 before I ran (heh heh) into a couple of wee health challenges. But, I suppose, if you look at the age-graded curve with the new qualification times you could make a case that if I succeed this year it will be an age-graded PR for me by 3-5 minutes.

I don’t know. I try not to get too wrapped around the axle on this sort of mental gymnastics. It’s all a bit self-serving.

Anyone who wants to say ‘hi’ on marathon weekend, that’s typically a challenge for me because I’m pretty busy and I like to lay low before the race. I usually go into the expo on Saturday Morning to get my stuff. My club has a hotel room at the finish if you want to stop by and have a shower or an adult beverage I’ll be there. Fair warning though – given my starting coral I may not be rolling in until after 4:00! It’s ironic that we are almost back to the traditional noon start we used to have for the race!

Crazy days! Everything is going too well. Must be a crises coming!

…

Getting ready to talk with Anthony this week I did some reminiscing about my stint on my prep school cross country team. I’m fairly confident that my time on a New England Prep School team was probably different than Anthony’s time running in high school in East LA. Who knows, maybe there are more similarities than differences? I only ran for my last 2 years. I joined up because the captains of the wrestling team were also the captains of the cross country team.

We had a pretty small team. But I made the varsity team. I was the 5th man. This is the slow guy that you need to fill out the team for scoring purposes. The top 5 guys get scored in the meets. I would finish in the middle of the pack. I was probably running in the low 6-minute mile range. Story of my life – steady and mediocre!

I hated the races. Our courses were short and mostly off-road. Some of them had obstacles like steeplechase. Like fallen trees, steep hills – stuff like that but also a lot of athletic fields. Most of the courses in our league were 2 miles or less – so it was pretty much an all-out anaerobic effort. Those short races hurt like hell.

They’d line us up across some soccer field or something in separate corals by team, maybe a couple hundred feet of starting line – all spread out. Then invariably after 100 meters or so they’d slam you into a single path trail. Everyone would have to come off the line in a dead sprint to get to the trail first and box the other guys out. Yeah, it was like the hunger games.

But, I loved the practices. We’d go out as a team on these long runs all around Groton. Out on the back roads and through the woods. It was awesome. I learned a lot about training and running.

We used to ride to away meets in a school van. Because our team was so small we could fit in one van. Our coach would drive. He was a kindly guy who was also the Trigonometry teacher. Oddly enough he smoked a pipe. Hey it was the 70’s. The pipe tobacco he liked was called “Borkum Riff” and I remember that smell as he smoked his pipe in the van on the way to the meet.

Sports were never a priority for me. I am so glad that the prep school I went to forced you to do competitive sports. If they hadn’t I might never have learned what little I was capable of. It isn’t about winning, or being a champion. It’s about learning. Learning what you’re capable of. Learning how to be a member of a team. Learning how to suffer for that team.

Make sure you and your kids and your community have that opportunity to learn.

Voices of reason – the conversation

Yes! The first link below takes you to our Kickstarter campaign (which ends early April) and has the first trailer to Varsity Punks, as well as a lot of the pertinent info. I was hoping you'd be able to squeeze in Anthony shortly before the end of the Kickstarter but late April would absolutely work.

I also included a few other links. I specifically recommend the KCET article.

An independent feature film in the making! It’s a fun high school movie about belonging, portrayed with authentic teenage moments and inspiring sports drama.

Genre: Coming-Of-Age Sports ComedySetting: Present-day San Gabriel ValleyEstimated Running Time: 100 min.Logline: When star quarterback, AJ Montoya, breaks his hand, his only hope is to team up with his longtime rivals – the cross country team, a group of nerds and misfits with potential for high school glory!

Production Update: (as of Nov. 2015)

We are currently in post-production. That means we are done shooting and now it’s time to put the movie together through editing, color correction, music and sound design. You can expect a completed film early in 2016.

Section two

Outro

Friends and members, runners and cavaliers, you have giggled, guffawed and snickered your way to the end of Episode 4-336 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Now go do something useful.

When this podcast drops I’ll be around 10 days out from Boston. I’m still not injured or broken. I’m a little heavy but my legs are strong. Coach has me doing pace runs and shorter track stuff to ‘freshen the legs’. The hay is in the barn and it’s almost time to dance with the devil.

Did you see Neely from last week’s interview was on the cover of that famous running magazine this month? I swear those guys follow me around just to poach my good ideas!

A couple reminders before I let you go. You can still support my Team Hoyt campaign for Boston. The links are in the show notes.

April 24th is our 25th anniversary Groton Road Race. We’ve set up the virtual race if you want join from afar – just go to GrotonRoadRace.com – Hope to see you there. It’s been a great privilege for me to be able to work with the race.

I figure everyone already knows by now but I have 3 books that you can get on Amazon. First is called “The Mid-Packer’s Lament” a collection of running stories, some of them quite funny, (Eric), “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy” is a second collection stories, some of them quite funny and my latest “MarathonBQ” outlines the program and all the tricks and tips I used to qualify for Boston when I was a puppy – and that one is on Audible as well and isn’t funny at all.

More jokes here…These are a little edgier…you might want to tell them to your 10 year-olds.

Q: What do you get when you run in front of a car? A: TIRED Q: Q: What do you get when you run behind a car? A: EXHAUSTED Q: What do you do when a golden retriever throws a pin at you? A: Run! She's got a hand grenade in her mouth.

…

I’m looking forward to Boston and Groton. As I get older I’m learning to enjoy these great sign-post moments in my life. I stop the smell the roses more. I can’t tell if that is the blunting of my own passions or the sanguinity of self-awareness.

Zen Runner did a bit a few weeks ago about bucket list items. I was looking at the things that people came up with and wondering about my own list. Which is another strange thing we do – compare the things we’ve accomplished or more appropriately collected with other people.

People were listing things like run a marathon or an ultra or maybe qualify for Boston…things like that. And it kind of struck me that while I’ve been going about my business I’ve collected a lot of souvenirs and memories. I’ve been graced and for that I am grateful.

Run a marathon? How about more than 50? Qualify for Boston? Yup. Write a book? Uh huh 3 of em. Ultra? Sure. Start a business, yessir. Triathlons? Yup. Mountain bike ultras? Done. Be a race director? Affirmative. Read the classics? Most of em. Stay married and raise a couple of functional adults. Present and accounted for. See the world? A good chunk of it.

Interestingly, I never sat down and said ‘these are the things that I want to accomplish’. This was an organic mélange of little projects that interested me at the time. A portfolio of hobbies, passions and necessities.

I’m not done. Not by a long shot. I’ve got a list of cool stuff in my back pocket that I’m going to shoehorn into this world one way or another. Like the marquee on a B movie “The Adventure Continues (dot dot dot)”.

It’s not a contest. There is no score on the polished granite marker that lays in the grass above your withered corpse. Yesterday, today, tomorrow; it’s all the same. Do what interests you. Don’t keep score. Keep swinging away until the bat falls from your hands.

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode - Tease

Hey folks, I was listening to Episode 4335 after I had dropped it today and realized that I had not inserted the Stu’s 30K race report sample that I put in the members’ feed. My production process with my new virtual assistant team still has some kinks!

Just to be clear those are production kinks, not the kind of kinks you folks have out in San Francisco…

Anyhow – I’m going to put the tease in here. In addition this give me a chance to drop another tease for a zombie story that I created an audio for the members. I was doing some virtual cleaning this week and I found this zombie story I had written last year in November for NanoWrimo. I read it and it was super cool so I recorded it for you.

Sorry for all the RunRunLive noise, but I’m also going to drop another episode this coming Friday because I interviewed a movie maker who is trying to make a deadline and I figured I’d expedite an episode to help him out.

Thanks folks – That Offspring song is the one that was blasting on a dude’s phone when I passed him at Stu’s 30k. You see that more and more these days. People running races with their music playing free for the world to hear.

These two new pieces of audio and many more to come in the members section. Head over to RunRunLive.com if you are interested.

Hello and welcome to episode 4-335 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Bear with me, we are going to get to the great show including a piece on the re-emergence of effort based training in the poplar zeitgeist and a really good interview with Neely Spence Gracey who is making her professional marathon debut at Boston this year. And I’m capping it off with a super-thoughtful post on mistakes not to make in life that is just in time for graduation season.

But – before that -This week I’ve got another milestone announcement for you. I’ve been toying with this idea for years and I finally got the breathing room to put it into action.

When I looked at the value of this podcast to you over the last 8 years and 300+ episodes it is in the content, meaning the words and the interviews, and the audio I create from them. That’s my value add in the process.

The revelation I had is that even though I am perfectly capable of it, there is no unique or differentiating value to me twiddling with my website or editing the audio or the countless other admin tasks that something like this takes.

So I asked myself, “Hey, Myself, how can I do less of that stuff and more of the good stuff?” and the answer was to automate the rote stuff. I had some down time at the beginning of this year and pulled together a great team of virtual assistants to do some of the time consuming production work for me.

We’re about 3 episodes in and it’s working fairly well.

The next phase of this project to automate is now ready. I had my website redone to support a membership option. I wanted to give people who had the ability to and wanted to a chance to help me cover the costs of all this stuff without having to resort to cheesy commercials or half-hearted sponsorships. I also didn’t want to take anything away or put existing stuff behind a paywall.

Bottom line – there’s a membership option to get extra cool stuff and support the content but we’re not charging for or taking away any of the existing content or archival content.

Here’s the pitch…

Remember RunRunLive is and always has been free and listener supported. To keep it that way we now are offering members’ only content.

By signing up for a membership, you will get…

Access To Exclusive Members Only audio

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

(This week I put up my Stu’s 30k race report! <audio clip here>)

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows

Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

We will consider other benefits as they are requested by you, because when you’re a member it’s all about you!

On top of that, consider how much it costs: $4.99 a month. That’s roughly the price of a couple Expresso Luv Gu gels a month. And unlike GU, we won’t give you a sugar overdose or rot your teeth. So not only will you be part of the RunRunLive community and be getting cool extras, you’ll also be healthier and happier.

But the real value is that you will be helping this community continue to provide the content you love. And as a member you can directly influence the stories we tell, the research we do and the people we interview. We’re all in this together.

So if you like what we’re doing here at RunRunLive, please consider becoming a member. Membership is cheap, for a monthly donation that breaks down to roughly around the price of 1/25th of a pair of running shoes each month you can help keep RunRunLive free and independent.

Go to my website and click on the subscribe button.

…

I’m glad to say my training is still going well. I had another big build week that capped off with a 3 hour long run. I’m in a good place mentally and physically because instead of ruing the run I was quite looking forward to it.

I queued up my favorite podcasts and ran 4 loops of my home 5 mile loop. Another good sign was when I got to the last loop I realized I’d be about 10 minutes short so I decided to run up to the top of the telephone tower hill –the driveway is on the course. So, yeah, 18 or so miles into the run I decide to throw in another big hill to make up some time.

Then when I got to the end of the run, near my house I had the 3 hours but was about a 1/3 of a mile short of 20 so I kept going for another 3 minutes to get the 20. Wasn’t sore or chafed or damaged at all after. All very good signs.

This weekend I’m racing one of my favorites – the Eastern States 20 Miler. Coach has gone easy on me so I can have fresher legs going into it and treat it as a pacing exercise. I’m confident I can negative split it and beat my target marathon goal pace. It’s a flatter course, but there’s always some wind coming off the ocean. It will be a good test and I’m looking forward to it.

Then I taper into Boston. I got my bib number and coral placement and I’m all the way in the back and that is going to be a challenge. I’ve got 4,000 charity runners to get around to get my BQ. That’s probably worth 4-5 minutes of race time before I can break free. I’m so far back this year that I’m considering just waiting before I cross the start mat and giving everyone a 10 -20 minute head start.

Whatever happens it will be an adventure.

…

I’ve always said that training well does not guarantee your race time. Training well only gives you the opportunity. Doing the work is not a guarantee of success. Doing the work is how you buy the ticket to get to the starting line with the potential to have a good or even a great day.

There was a baseball movie in the 90’s called “Major League”. The storyline was a team of reprobates, misfits and has-beens comes together to beat everyone’s expectations and win. One of the characters was the has-been pitcher Eddie Harris (played by actor Chelcie Ross).

I think about Eddie Harris when I’m racing now. He had lost his power and speed but he managed to strike people out with the tricks and veteran guile.

That’s where I am now. I don’t have the power or speed. I can’t recover as fast. I can’t afford to skip any of the ancillary activities like strength training and stretching. I can’t skip workouts and expect to just ‘show up and race’.

But, I know my machine. I know how to race. I’ve got the confidence and poise to coax good performances. And I’m ok with that.

Section two

Outro

My friends, members or not, you have reached the end of yet another free and listener supported RunRunLive Podcast – Episode 4-335 has made its successful professional debut.

The coming 3-4 weeks are just going to be a blur for me and it’s going to carry through May and into June. I’ve got a multi-day meeting in Chicago next week. Then April 18th is the Boston Marathon and I’m in the best shape and have the most confidence in my training that I have had for about 5 years.

You’d think that would make me less nervous. Just the opposite. When you haven’t trained well there’s no stress because there is no expectation. I have trained well and now all I can do is screw it up! There will be some full on sleepless nights and psychotic episodes over the next couple weeks!

April 24th is our 25th anniversary Groton Road Race. We’ve set up the virtual race if you want join from afar – just go to GrotonRoadRace.com – Hope to see you there.

Rolling into May I’ve got a multiple conferences and meetings in New Orleans, Atlanta and Phoenix. I’ll be on the road a lot and looking to run the canyon while I’m in Phoenix. Not sure what my next goal will be. I’m feeling a bit achy from road racing. Whatever it is it won’t be road racing! Unless, of course I blow my qualifier try at Boston. Then I might have to lift that heavy bag of training to my shoulders again, but I’m getting good at that.

I got some pushback on my dog joke from last time. Apparently the goldens and labs were insulted by my comments. I apologize for that, but I never would have thought they had the mental capacity to be insulted. I’ll try to be my sensitive.

…

Closing comments

Buddy woke up limping around the house today. He has something wrong with a front paw and I’m going to take him to the vet in a bit. I want them to look at that other fatty lump on his hip and maybe get that taken out because it seems to be really getting in the way of his running.

We’re a pair of old guys limping around the house complaining about aches and pains. I don’t have any muscle or tendonitis problems this cycle. Coach gives me enough rest and I’ve been attentive to my yoga and core strengthening.

I do have some goof pain. I caught a toes in the dark on the trail one night. I was emerging from the trail into a parking lot and the snow plows had pushed an unexpected piece of curbing into the path. I came down on my palm and tore a nice hole. Palms don’t heal well.

Then coach gave me a recovery bike spin workout. It was one of those nice days so I took Fuji-san off the fluid trainer, pumped up the tires, greased all the moving bits and headed for the rail trail. In the process I had to swap the skewer on the back wheel because the trainer requires a specific skewer – it’s the rod through the axles that has a quick release lever on it.

Well, I must not have clamped the back wheel on well enough. There I was in traffic, balancing at a stop sign, I stood up in the peddles to go and the back wheel comes out of the frame and seizes. Of course I’m clipped in so I do that embarrassing death roll into the bushes. I took a piece of gravel and tore a nice hole in my knee!

Fast forward a couple days and I’m out running in Los Angeles. I decide to try to make it to the beach and turn my 1 hour run into a 2 hour run. Now since it was only supposed to be a 1 hour run I didn’t put any lube on. It’s hot for me in LA so I was sweating and I wore all the skin off of a part of my body that sticks out.

There I was last week. In the best shape of my life and no running injuries, and I managed to manufacture a hole in my hand, a hole in my knee and a super uncomfortable bit of personal chafing.

Hello and welcome to episode 4-334 of the RunRunLive Podcast. This is a milestone podcast. With this episode I have caught up to Steve who is currently on episode 334 of Pheddipidations! See? Consistency! Tourtoise and the hare and all that.

Great to have you along with me today on this sweet, sweet spring adventure up here in New England. Welcome and thank you for taking the time to download this podcast and listen to it. Maybe you’re out on your run and you can feel your heart beating, breath in your lungs and your feet hitting the ground. Maybe you’re in your car with the slow thrum of the road vibrating through your body. Maybe you’re at work pretending to be interested in that thing that you to keep the bailiff away from your door. Whatever it is – I’ve got a fantastic show for you today.

(See how I used hyperbole there? I’m telling you it’s fantastic to hypnotize you into thinking that way. I have no idea if it’s fantastic or not. I’m mean really that would mean it’s so good it can only be considered as a fantasy. If that’s true you should probably upgrade your fantasies)

Words have power. Thoughts have power. The power to teach, to console to salve the wounds of a soul. Don’t discount the power of words.

Words are the manifestation of thought and thought is the precursor to action.

Sorry – meandered a bit off track there.

Anyhow – My training has been going fantastic! Heh heh. I am right where I need to be for Boston. Everyone stop right now and pray for good weather. Work with me here. I want mid-40’s, overcast, with maybe a slight misty drizzle and a 5 mph tail wind.

I finished off another build cycle of 50 mile weeks that culminated in a really good showing at Stu’s 30k last Sunday. At the end of a cycle, on tired legs, on a difficult course I ran a disciplined negative spilt. I laid low for the first 8-9 miles then raced the second half. It was a real confidence builder. I felt like I knew what I was doing and was in control the whole way. I closed it hard and ended up averaging spot-on my qualifying pace.

Today we chat with Nate who you may recognize as ‘Nate from Harrisburg’ from the Extramile Podcast. I had a couple of conversations recently about the relationship between running and Alcohol and I wanted to explore it more with people who know more than I do. Nate is a counselor who has worked with addiction and also a runner so I thought this would be a good place to start.

I don’t claim to have any expertise here. I know I have been affected by addiction and I’m sure many of you have as well. I’m not here to minimize the topic or glorify it. I just wanted to have a thoughtful conversations about it. I wish I could do more, but for better or worse today Nate and I have a conversation around alcohol and running.

In the first section I’m going to talk about how to program workouts into your running watch. In the second section I’ll ramble on about some other, general, random crap like I usually do.

…

I had a really good race last weekend. I ran well and disciplined and my body showed glimpses of race fitness and ability that I haven’t seen in a while. I’ve been here before. Approaching the peak of a solid, long, committed training cycle. I remember those days when I crossed the finish line fists raised in glorious triumph. I do remember being this strong and healthy before and how tenuous and slippery the foothold is on those peaks.

We remember the glorious days, the big successes the big victories. But we don’t remember the hard work that went into making those triumphs possible. The long days and hard efforts and continuous, insistent, focused work that got us to those peaks – those fade into a dreary montage and all we remember is a summary. We remember that we are capable of these great things. But we forget that we need to do the work that goes into attaining them. The meal is remembered the recipe is lost.

The same is true for failure. We remember the pain of falling down but we forget the thousands of choices that led to it.

When you crest the big hill and unexpectedly find there is a flatter bit of road and the going gets easier. It’s easy to relax and fall prey to an entropy of spirit. Whether the slope is steep and your breathing labored or you find yourself moving with strength and ease the work is always there.

Remember to smile when you find that ease and congratulate yourself for climbing to this point. But remember that the work that is done in the times of ease is the work that leads to success in the times of strain.

The trick is to hold the smiles in one hand and the work in the other and keep moving forward.

On with the Show!

Section one - Running Tips

Voices of reason – the conversation

Nate Wagner

My name is Nate Wagner. I live in Harrisburg, PA with my wife and two girls. I am a licensed therapist at Cornerstone Counseling. I enjoy running half and full marathons. I help clients get their lives back from addiction and marital difficulties. Have any questions or if I can help in any way, please reach out to me on twitter @natewagner08

Outro -

Closing comments

Well, my friends, it might be time to crack open a celebratory cold one, or reconsider that, but either way, you can celebrate reaching the end of episode 4334 of the RunRunLive podcast.

Have you noticed the new editing? This will be the 2nd podcast with entirely outsourced content editing. Anyone have any quality issues let me know.

I’m moving into my final race build cycles for the Boston marathon. I’m right on track . Very comfortable with my speed and fitness after Stu’s last week. I am working on a race report for Stu’s – stay tuned for that. My next race is The Eastern States 20 Miler March 26th. It’s on a Saturday this year because of Easter. That will be my last pace run before Boston. I’m right on track.

I’d like to thank all my friends who have contributed to my Team Hoyt fund for Boston. I can still use your help if you can – I would appreciate it.

I’m still planning to run the in-and-out of the Grand Canyon on Thursday May 19th – whether you’re too chicken to join me or not!

The Groton Road Race is April 24th and with the nice weather it looks like we’re going to have a good year. We set up a virtual race option, so no matter where you live you can sign up and run and we’ll send you one of our super nice 25th anniversary shirts. Just go to GrotonRoadRace.com

Next week I have a great interview with Neely Gracey who is an pro-elite runner. She’s just at the beginning of her career, knocked out a sub-70 ½ at Philly and is making her debut at Boston this year. It was a super interesting talk. The next time you folks feel like saying something smarmy about Millennials you should listen to Neely.

…

We’ve been far too serious today. To take you out I’m going to give you a joke you can tell to your dog. You can try telling it your cat, but this joke has not been cat tested. It doesn’t work with dogs that have short attention spans, like Jack Russells, or dogs that just aren’t very bright like Labs and Goldens, and it definitely won’t work with deaf dogs.

The good thing about dogs is that you could tell them this joke as many times as you want and it’s still going to be funny.

I don’t know about you, but I talk to my dog. For his part, Buddy acts interested when I talk to him. He also does emotional mirroring – meaning that he senses from my tone of voice and my emotional state the essence of what I’m talking about and he projects the appropriate matching emotion of interest, concern, or hugs.

When you’re telling the joke you have to address the dog like you’re talking directly to the dog, taking them into your confidence. When I do this Buddy will essentially ‘lean in’ to the conversation which make the punch line hilarious.

I made up this Joke to share with Buddy how annoying some of his interaction with me are.